How NAC Has Learned to Help

How NAC Has Learned to Help

Like Pinocchio, the National

Accreditation Council began life as a puppet. Unlike NAC, however, Pinocchio eventually

became an independent, living being. You will remember that Pinocchio's nose grew longer

each time he told a lie. Here Peggy Elliott points out a related phenomenon which occurs

whenever NAC makes its claims of excellence and usefulness.

(Photo adapted from an illustration by Richard Floethe)

How NAC Has Learned to Help the

Blind

by Peggy Elliott

From the Editor: For a number of years now

NFB Second Vice President Peggy Elliott has been reporting periodically on the slow but

steady decline of the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and

Visually Handicapped (NAC). Ruth Westman, Executive Director of NAC for several years,

recently retired. Gerald Mundy came out of retirement after years as the director of the

Clovernook Center in Cincinnati to take on the leadership of NAC, which means that its

address has moved from New York City to Ohio—not an acquisition to make Ohioans

proud. The 1997 year-end report from NAC is in, and the trends are happily, but not

surprisingly, still the same. Here is Peggy's report:

Ah, Pinocchio! You have had a long run as the

only person in history or story whose appearance is affected by what you say. Every time

you lie, your nose gets longer. Well, move over, Pinocchio. Your legend is about to be

replaced by a piece of real history. Tell me, Pinocchio, have you ever heard of NAC?

You say you haven't? And I notice that your nose

did not lengthen even one centimeter when you said that. You're one of a growing number of

living, breathing souls who have never heard of NAC. In fact, the NAC-free environment is

expanding all the time. So let me clue you in. NAC is the National Accreditation Council

for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped. Yes, I know, it's a

botherationally long name. That's why everyone forced to speak of it calls it NAC.

NAC was founded in 1966 with great fanfare and

grandiose claims that it would soon set the standards for the entire blindness field,

accredit all the worthy agencies, be the recognized symbol for excellence in the field.

For a time NAC grew. Then, my dear Pinocchio, things changed.

You see, NAC forgot the National Federation of

the Blind. Or, more precisely, NAC was founded by people who feared and distrusted the

growing power of the organized blind movement.

Their intention in establishing NAC was to insure

that the consumer voice would never be effective in shaping agency policy in the blindness

field. But NAC's founders misjudged one little thing: the determination of blind people to

be free and to have a say in how that freedom was defined. NAC and its backers thought it

should do all the defining.

Then, my dear Pinocchio, a funny thing happened.

Well, given your own nasal circumstances, you might not consider it particularly funny.

But it happened, nevertheless. Agencies started withdrawing from NAC and working with

Federationists to make positive change. More and more it became obvious to the blindness

community that NAC-accredited agencies were not interested in positive change, in working

cooperatively with blind people. As a result NAC standards are now widely viewed as

irrelevant. Its old-boy-network method of re-accreditation has become a joke. No one has

ever heard of a NAC agency's losing its accreditation because of failure to meet

standards. In fact, numerous agencies over the years stopped paying their annual dues, and

NAC kept them on its list of accredited members, hoping they would return to the fold.

Here's where you come in, Pinocchio. NAC bragged

in its early years, as it worked at spreading itself across the face of work with the

blind, that its professionalism was unequaled and its power unstoppable. Its rhetoric has

not changed as views about it have altered. NAC still proclaims its virtue, its rectitude,

its value for all blind people. But take heed, Pinocchio. Every time such proclamations

are made, NAC's list of accredited agencies gets shorter. Beware, Pinocchio. Your

legendary nose and your reputation have now been overshadowed by real-world events.

The face of the blindness field has indeed

changed in the past thirty-some years. But the change has not been wrought by NAC. With

each passing year, NAC's list gets shorter, and the influence of the National Federation

of the Blind gets wider and deeper. You see, Pinocchio, the thing NAC was most afraid of

is the thing that has happened. Blind people themselves are now decision-makers, the ones

in charge, participants seated at the table. The more this happens, the shorter NAC's list

grows. Move over, Pinocchio. The increasing length of your nose is no longer the story.

Speak up, NAC. Every time you brag, your list gets shorter. NAC, we can't hear you! Speak

up, NAC! It helps all blind people to be free.

Notes on NAC: In its thirty-two years of

existence, 132 agencies have at one time or another been associated with NAC. Today only

fifty-three, 40 percent of the total, remain associated; seventy-nine have dropped NAC.

Today only one state vocational rehabilitation agency is accredited by NAC, the one in

Florida. The other twelve which were once accredited have now dropped NAC as irrelevant to

their mission while the other state agencies never bothered to accredit in the first

place. Today eleven schools for the blind are accredited though there are more than

seventy in our country. Nineteen others were once accredited and have now dropped NAC.

Today sixteen workshops for the blind are accredited by NAC though there are eighty

workshops in the country. Twenty-four workshops were once accredited and have now dropped

NAC. Of the three mainline types of agencies serving the blind in our country (state

vocational rehabilitation agencies, schools, and workshops), NAC has a tiny minority of

each on its approved list. Of the rest, a majority of each type never accredited at all,

and most of the minority which sought NAC accreditation at one time have now dropped it.

The remainder of NAC's accredited members are

smaller agencies, serving cities or regions of a state. This group of smaller agencies is

now almost a majority of the entire list of NAC members. NAC's accreditation fees and

annual dues are much higher than those charged by other accrediting bodies, so the

adherence of these smaller agencies has always been something of a mystery when tight

budgets and tough fund-raising are considered. The picture becomes a little clearer when

one notes that the states of Florida and Ohio condition or seem to condition many grants

and contracts on NAC accreditation. Questioning members of the blind community in these

two states does not, however, yield a picture of perfect service and contented blind

customers. We can only hope that NAC will make more claims of fine service in these two

states so that its list will grow even shorter.

In calendar 1997 NAC lost six more agencies from

its accredited list and added no new ones. We can all hope that NAC continues to laud

itself and that 1998 will bring about even more departures from the NAC list. In 1990 NAC

had ninety-eight accredited agencies with which to begin the decade. In the eight years

since then nine agencies, swimming determinedly against the current, have joined NAC for

the first time, an average of about one a year, though four of these are located in

Florida and Ohio, where misguided rules encourage accreditation, and one of the nine has

already dropped back off the NAC rolls again. Starting with ninety-eight and adding nine

yields a total number of adherents any time in this decade of 107. But fifty-four agencies

associated with NAC at some time during the decade have now dropped that association,

leaving a remnant of fifty-three now approved by NAC. I wish that someone could tell me

what these fifty-three agencies think they are getting in exchange for their annual NAC

dues beyond ridicule and disrupted relations with the blind community in their states.

Finally we should note that half the states are

now a NAC-free environment and that seventeen more have only one accredited agency within

their borders. Florida has almost one quarter of all the accredited agencies, and six

states (Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Illinois) are home to more

than half the accredited agencies still clinging to NAC. Check with blind friends in these

states to determine the quality of services as compared to national trends. You'll find

the picture unflattering to NAC and its talk about quality service. Speak up, NAC. We

can't hear you. And move over, Pinocchio. It's likely that 1998 will be another shortening

year for NAC.

States That Can Boast a NAC-Free Environment:

Alaska

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

District of Columbia

Hawaii

Idaho

Kentucky

Louisiana

Massachusetts

Mississippi

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Jersey

New Mexico

North Carolina

Oregon

Puerto Rico

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Vermont

Virginia

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

States That Have Only One NAC-Accredited Agency:

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Maine

Maryland

Minnesota

Missouri

New Hampshire

North Dakota

Oklahoma

South Dakota

Texas

Utah

Washington

NAC-Accredited Organizations: (States listed

alphabetically)

Alabama:

Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind

Arizona:

The Foundation for Blind Children

Arkansas:

Lions World Services for the Blind

California:

The Center for the Partially Sighted

Sacramento Society for the Blind

Florida:

Center for the Visually Impaired, Inc.

Conklin Center for Multihandicapped Blind

Division of Blind Services, Florida Department of Labor and

Employment Security

The Florida School for the Blind

Independence for the Blind, Inc.

The Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired and Blind, Inc.

Lighthouse of Broward County, Inc.

Mana-Sota Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc.

The Miami Lighthouse for the Blind

Pinellas Center for the Visually Impaired, Inc.

Tampa Lighthouse for the Blind

Visually Impaired Persons of Southwest Florida, Inc.

Georgia:

Blind and Low Vision Services of North Georgia Center for the Visually Impaired, Inc.

Georgia Academy for the Blind

Savannah Association for the Blind, Inc.

Illinois:

The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

Deicke Center for Visual Rehabilitation

Philip J. Rock Center and School

Indiana:

Indiana School for the Blind

Iowa:

Genesis Vision Rehabilitation Institute

Kansas:

Envision

Maine:

Maine Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Maryland:

The Maryland School for the Blind

Michigan:

Upshaw Institute for the Blind

Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired

The Visually Impaired Center, Inc.

Minnesota:

The Lighthouse, Duluth, for the Blind, Inc.

Missouri:

Alphapointe Association for the Blind

New Hampshire:

New Hampshire Association for the Blind

New York:

Association for the Visually Impaired, Inc.

Blind Association of Western New York

The New York Institute for Special Education

North Dakota:

North Dakota School for the Blind

Ohio:

Cincinnati Association for the Blind

The Clovernook Center—Opportunities for the Blind

The Sight Center, Toledo Vision Center of Central Ohio, Inc.

Oklahoma:

Parkview School (Oklahoma School for the Blind)

Pennsylvania:

Pittsburgh Blind Association and Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind

(both were individually accredited, but after consolidation are seeking accreditation

under the name of Pittsburgh Vision Services.)

Susquehanna Association for the Blind and Vision Impaired

South Dakota:

South Dakota School for the Visually Handicapped

Tennessee:

The Alliance for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Inc.

Ed Lindsey Industries for the Blind, Inc.

Lions Volunteer Blind Industries, Inc.

Texas:

Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc.

Utah:

Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind

Washington:

The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc.

United States Map