Fact Sheet: Blindness, Rehabilitation, and the Need for

Fact Sheet: Blindness, Rehabilitation, and the Need for

The Braille Monitor

April 1997

(next)

(contents)

Fact Sheet: Blindness,

Rehabilitation, and the Need for

Specialized Programs

BACKGROUND: Under title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,

federal grants assist every state to provide comprehensive vocational rehabilitation

services to eligible persons with disabilities, including persons who are blind.

The program's cost for fiscal year 1997 (the final year of the current authorized

funding) is approximately $2.3 billion.

STATEMENT OF POSITION: Congress should enact legislation this

year to reauthorize the existing vocational rehabilitation program. Vocational

rehabilitation has been recognized as a shared federal and state responsibility

for seventy-seven years. The program has received consistent and broad bipartisan

support in Congress during each major review, leading to its periodic reauthorization.

The last reauthorization occurred in 1992.

During the 104th Congress vocational rehabilitation was among

the programs first included but later removed from a proposed job training,

education, and employment system consolidation bill. The most decisive action

occurred in the House of Representatives, where an amendment was passed on the

floor to exclude vocational rehabilitation from the consolidated service delivery

system. Nonetheless, with the program's reauthorization due for consideration

this year, the possibility of consolidation with other programs has been discussed

and could be proposed again.

RATIONALE FOR IDENTIFIABLE, BLINDNESS-SPECIFIC SERVICES: The

consolidation approach is based on the theory that the administration and delivery

of services to assist the blind are essentially the same as services to dislocated

workers or unemployed welfare recipients. However, the mixture of vocational

rehabilitation with job training, education, and employment programs for the

general population is a fundamentally flawed concept. For example, the following

essential rehabilitation services needed by blind individuals are not available

from--and are completely unrelated to--generic job training and employment programs:

1. Comprehensive adjustment to blindness services. This training

involves a sustained period of concentrated study to acquire the necessary tools

for dealing with blindness and moving on to lead a normal life. Success in adjusting

to blindness particularly includes integration of skills development with an

understanding of relevant personal and social attitudes.

2. Travel training in using the white cane or the guide dog.

This service must include all skills necessary to assess and move safely through

the environment without seeing one's surroundings.

3. Adaptive methods of reading and writing. This training includes

Braille instruction sufficient to perform at the level of literacy required

for success in vocational preparation or on the job. Competent use of Braille

requires the tactile identification of raised dots presented in prescribed patterns

to form letters, numbers, and approximately 200 shorthand contractions commonly

used. The extent of training needed will vary in complexity from learning the

basic Braille code to specialized notations for computers, foreign languages,

music, math, and other disciplines.

4. Assistive technology. This service includes individualized

assessment of technology needs, procurement of appropriate devices, and personalized

often one-on-one training in the use of the technology. High- or low-technology

adaptations include use of specially adapted synthetic speech devices for computers,

screen enlargement programs, Braille computer terminals, closed-circuit television

or other magnification devices, and reading machines or scanners.

For someone who becomes blind in mid-career, unemployment is

only one of many consequences. By comparison, however, the need for special

help to deal with blindness is by far the most profound initial problem. Failure

to provide services which respond to the blind person's fears, lack of confidence,

and skills will almost certainly result in lifelong dependence. Under existing

law all states are provided with a dedicated block of federal funding for the

sole purpose of assisting people with disabilities to achieve individualized

rehabilitation goals. Under the consolidation plan, however, both the dedicated

funding and the resulting specialized services would essentially be sacrificed

to meet other perceived needs.

It is a matter of historical fact that state agency organization

and service delivery patterns tend to mirror the pattern of federal financial

assistance. Moreover, the combination of programs would inevitably favor the

largest and best-understood needs to be met. Unique services for blind individuals

would be sacrificed in the merger since the needs of a person who is newly blinded

are dramatically different from those of the typical unemployed worker.

ACTION REQUESTED: Each member of Congress is urged to assist

with efforts to assure that programs which provide blindness-specific rehabilitation

services are able to continue by:

1. Announcing support for reauthorization legislation to maintain

dedicated federal funding and existing requirements for identifiable programs

which specialize in providing vocational rehabilitation services; and

2. Opposing efforts to combine the funding and service delivery

system of the vocational rehabilitation program with a consolidated job training,

education, and employment system for the general population.