Thank you for your interest in joining the National Federation of the Blind Dream Builders Capital Campaign. As you know, we have several important projects on the horizon. We want to share details of this project with you personally.
Program Focus
Blindness professionals.
What’s at Stake
The current system used to educate and train blindness professionals does an inadequate job of equipping teachers, vocational rehabilitation professionals, and access technology trainers with the skills and philosophy they need to set high expectations for their blind students. This results in poor education for blind youth, mediocre rehabilitation training for blind adults, and substandard training in the use of access technology for educational and employment opportunities. The lack of high quality trainers of blind children and adults contributes to the 70 percent unemployment rate of blind people.
How Train the Trainers Will Help
- The Train the Trainers program will utilize structured discovery to provide emerging leaders in the fields of blindness education, vocational rehabilitation, and access technology with the tools they need to help blind children and adults live the lives they want.
- Our teams will host standalone trainings (both online and in person), present at professional conferences, and offer courses for existing post-secondary certification programs.
- Train the Trainers will contribute to lowering the unemployment rate of blind people by increasing the number of qualified trained blindness professionals.
Building the Program
- The National Federation of the Blind will develop a team of individuals to train educators, rehabilitation professionals, and access technology instructors based on the Train the Trainer model.
- Team members will work under the direction of program staff at the Center for Employment Opportunity (CEO).
Evaluating the Program
The National Federation of the Blind will:
- Evaluate each presentation or course upon completion.
- Conduct ongoing evaluations to determine the impact of the program and measure employment rates.
Resources and Personnel Needed
- Program Manager (likely the director of the CEO)
- Education, Rehabilitation, and Access Technology Professionals
Why the National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind has more than seventy-five years of experience in teaching the blind that they can live the lives we want, our members have thousands of years of experience. Our members are willing to share that experience and knowledge with others in order to improve the education and rehabilitation landscape for blind people in the future. That makes us uniquely qualified to train the trainers who will teach our children so they will have the tools they need to compete effectively in the workplace.