(Editor’s Note;) The State Rehabilitation Council is having an open forum on September 20, 2006 in Lewiston. (See our listing of Conferences, Meetings and Events.) Here is a paper delivered fifty years ago speaking about people who were blind, their educational opportunities, and their employment. In light of the upcoming forum, this piece seems worth a bit of reflection. Thanks to colleagues at the Smith-Kettlewell Foundation for bringing this to my attention. Steve Hoad

The following paper was delivered, in 1956, before the San Francisco Convention of The National Federation of the Blind.

[Note: In that historic context, the term "higher education" referred to successful completion of Twelfth Grade (and beyond). I, Bill Gerrey, then nine years of age, was present at Dr. Lowenfeld's delivery; the positivism -- hope for the future -- was electric.]

     Organized higher education for the blind in California has a long and distinguished history. Long because it dates back to at least 1892 when Dr. Newel Perry, our beloved leader of the blind in California, entered the University of California after attending public high school from 1890 to 1892. I said at least to 1892 because I am sure that there were other blind people who individually acquired higher education in the State of California before that year. Higher education for the blind in California is distinguished because it would be difficult to match anywhere the contribution which blind graduates of higher schools of learning have made to the citizens of our state as well as to the nation as a whole. Where else can you find a cross section of the blind in the professions which at present includes men and women who hold positions like these: A professor who is head of his department at the largest state university of the country; another professor who holds a distinguished position at one of the great eastern universities; a lawyer who is connected with the State Supreme Court; another lawyer who serves under Federal Civil Service; a division head in the State Department of Social Welfare; a head of an orientation center for the blind; a Director of Advanced Studies at the State School for the Blind; a principal of another State School for the Blind; an executive director of a national agency for the blind; a number of outstanding teachers, rehabilitation officers and social workers, a number of successful lawyers, music teachers, osteopaths and chiropractors, and many others who are making most valuable contributions to our economic, intellectual and spiritual life.

     In a recent study of the employment status of former pupils of the California School for the Blind, Mrs. Josephine Buell showed that there are more gainfully employed white-collar workers among the graduates of our school than among an equal group of seeing citizens. This proves indeed that to the blind, higher education spells independence.

     When we talk about the men and women who have already shown by their achievements the success of higher education for the blind in California, we must also consider the present status of it in order to estimate what will happen in the future. At present there are 71 blind students in schools of higher learning in California who receive assistance from the Reader's Fund for Blind College Students which is administered by the California School for the Blind. There must be others who are not receiving such aid but may at one time or the other make use of it. This is a larger number than ever and promises the continuance of the status of higher learning among the blind in California. At present blind students are enrolled in most of the universities and colleges of the State and the career fields which they are planning to enter are greatly varied ones. They include: social welfare, law, teaching, ministry, psychotherapy, physical therapy, administration, college teaching, political science, research in physics, medical social work, industrial relations, family counseling, and so on.

  What are the factors responsible for this success of higher education? I can see the following ones:

(1) The high degree of motivation resulting from the known success of the blind in California in professional fields.
(2) The development of legislation which effectively supports higher education.
(3) The organized efforts of the California Council for the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind to prevent discrimination in appointments to public and private positions requiring higher education.
(4) The program of the California School for the Blind providing high school education for its senior high school pupils in public schools.

     Let me now comment on each of these four points. The first one I have already discussed, although it remains to be added that the examples of outstanding success of blind persons in the professions act as a great motivational force for those young blind students who map their future career. Not only do our students meet successful blind teachers and counselors on the staff of our school, but they also learn about successful blind professionals, and meet many of them personally in their special course dealing with vocations for the blind. There has naturally developed quite a tradition in regard to higher learning at the California School for the Blind which is a definite part of its atmosphere.

    Legislation to support higher education for the blind by assisting students with a reader who could read to them the texts, which as a rule are not available in braille, dates back to the early 1910's, when Dr. Newel Perry came to the California School for the Blind and promoted such legislation, patterned after the law which was enacted through his efforts by the New York State Legislature in 1907. Our law provides that any blind person with the proper educational and moral qualifications who regularly matriculates, enters, and works for a degree or for a diploma of graduation in any university, college or state college in California, may be provided with a reader to assist him in his studies. The amount of this assistance has varied according to the value of the dollar and is presently up to $1,000 per annum for any one under-graduate student, and up to $1,200 for a graduate student. At the rate of one dollar per reading hour, this means that an under-graduate student may use up to about 3 hours of reading every day of the year, and a graduate student up to 4 hours. Of course not all of them do, although at critical times of their studies they may, for instance, before examinations or when preparing their theses. A great deal depends on the kinds of courses the student is taking and the amount of reading required. The Director of Advanced Studies on the staff of the California School for the Blind, a position in which Mr. Robert W. Campbell who followed Dr. Newel Perry, carries the responsibility for supervising the blind college students and their readers assistance. In the past it has been the policy to require certain minimum qualifications for receipt of reader's assistance which, it is felt, safeguards the caliber of blind college students embarking on higher education. It also avoids disappointment for those who may want to enter professional training without possessing the necessary intellectual qualifications. I cannot conclude my discussion of legislation providing reader's assistance to blind college students without giving credit to the California Council for the Blind and its leadership in this area. It is due to their efforts that our provisions function on such a high level of efficiency.

     The California Council for the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind have also been highly successful in preventing discrimination in the appointment of blind persons to positions requiring higher education. Indirectly they have influenced, by the success of so many of their members, the attitudes of the public toward the blind. Every successful blind worker in the professions convinces a goodly number of doubting members of the public that the blind must be approached just as the seeing on the basis of their individual qualifications and not with any stereotyped ideas about them. Directly they have forthrightly attacked any discriminatory policies of official agencies on the federal, state, and local level, and succeeded in opening up professional job opportunities for the blind.

     As the last factor responsible for the success of higher education in California, I want to mention the program of the California School for the Blind which provides that all students who are capable of senior high school work attend public high schools. We have had as many as 20 boys and girls go to Berkeley High School and Oakland Technical High School at one time. They are supervised by our Director of Advanced Studies who is assisted by a staff of tutors and readers. Every evening during the school week our senior high school students have their study hour between 7 and 10 or 11 o'clock when texts are being read to them and when they are tutored in certain subjects, particularly geometry, physics, and chemistry. This serves them to work and compete successfully with their seeing peers. Beyond the documentable school success this program has succeeded in making, the first real and full experience of integration with the seeing, a positive and encouraging one for a great number of young blind people. Backed up by this experience, they find adjustment to college life and work much easier and feel therefore encouraged to pursue higher studies, Dr. Newel Perry as well as Mr. Robert Campbell have been instrumental in making this program so highly successful.

          The value of college education, although debated by many, lies not only in the preparation for professional work, but also in its cultural element which contributes to the enrichment of the individual's life. Any person with a good cultural background will, under otherwise equal circumstances, be socially more acceptable. This is just as true for the blind person as it is for others, perhaps a little more so because in sharing socially with others, the blind person relies more upon his inner resources.

     To end my discussion on a lighter tone, I want to mention another finding of Mrs. Buell's study which revealed that 40.8% of the female pupils of the California School for the Blind are housewives and married. Maybe this has something to do with college education, since many talk of our colleges as "matrimonial institutions". On the other hand, there is no doubt that the cultured and educated young woman is more attractive to, and probably knows better how to attract, the male of the species.

     It was indeed a pleasure to present to you these observations about higher education for the blind in California which I know will be supplemented by the two following speakers who represent the associated blind college students of northern and southern California. I thank you.   

1. During the period 1927-1951, 467 students, 16 years and older, left the California School for the Blind.

This information was obtained from the school's files through the cooperation of superintendent Dr. Berthold Lowenfeld.

 2. Through Mr. George Fogarty and Mrs. Edna Mae Fleischer, 358, or 76.7 percent, of the former pupils were located. The sample was well distributed over the 25-year period.

 3. About three-fourths of the former pupils of the school are gainfully employed. This includes housewives, workers in sheltered shops for the blind, vending stand operators, and students preparing college. Nearly one-fourth of the gainfully employed are working in subsidized occupations.

 4. As in the case with sighted students, many former blind pupils become employed in other jobs than those which were goals upon graduation.

5. The percentage of employment in this group is about 15 percent below the national average of sighted people.

6. Other studies show that the average income of blind workers is much lower than that of gainfully employed sighted individuals. Of course, there are some prosperous blind people.

7. The percentage of former students of the California School for the Blind who become gainfully employed compares favorably with that of other schools for the blind.

 8. About 40 percent of former female pupils become homemakers, and somewhat over half of them marry sighted husbands.

 9. In comparison with sighted workers, there are in California more blind individuals in white-collar occupations which includes selling in its various forms, such as vending stands for the blind, door to door and newspaper salesman. There are fewer blind in the skilled trades. The percentages for the two groups are about equal in the semi-skilled and unskilled occupations.

10. More than half of the former pupils have gone into pursuits other than white-collar occupations.

11. In twenty-five years, nine of the former pupils have gone into pursuits other than white-collar occupations.

12. Eight percent of the former pupils successfully entered the professions, such as teaching, law, social work and rehabilitation.

13. Out of 467 students, nine have succeeded as teachers, eight in social work, five in rehabilitation work, four in law, four as chiropractors, and three as music teachers with a private clientele.

  14. Only two former students are earning a living in farming. There are more opportunities in this field for the blind.

   OCCUPATIONS OF FORMER PUPILS OF THE CALIFORNIA                     SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND

Occupations                     Number of Male Blind Workers

Total          189

Occupations                      Number of Female Blind Workers

Total         169

*--Former students whose sight improved

 VOCATIONAL STATUS OF ACCOUNTED FOR FORMER PUPILS

Total          169 or 100%         189 or 100%

*--Includes college students because they are not now earning money. Most of them will become employed.

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