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Topic No. 3

THE BLIND IN THE COMMUNITY

SURVEY BY EDWARD M. VAN CLEVE, Principal New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, New York, N.Y.

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION
MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND

To this investigator was assigned
Topic III -- THE BLIND IN THE COMMUNITY.
1. Field Work.
2. Home Teaching.
3. Work in Competition with the Sighted.
4. Home Work. Salesroom.
5. Local Centers.

December 6 to 9, 1916, was the period given to a personal visitation, the time being spent chiefly at the office of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass. The opportunity was taken to visit in another city three blind persons who had come under the instruction of a home teacher.

Every sub-topic was carefully considered. In this report I shall present only a general comment, without attempt to review the work often years exhaustively; criticism, if any is worth noting; and a finding.

1. Field Work. The method of the Commission in securing information about where blind people are shows how well the forces for human betterment are organized in Massachusetts. Not only the Commission's agents, but also all organizations one can think of, help to bring to the notice of the Commission the occurrence of blindness. One is struck with the promptness of action following information. What this action may be is determined by the requirements of the case. The use of the various means of the Commission for helpfulness is admirably illustrated in the case of Mr.--, teamster, reported blind by the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Hospital, visited in his sister's home where he felt himself a burden, encouraged, given a visit in the family of another blind man wholesomely cheerful and effective, taught by home teachers to use his hands as a workman, located in a shop, now happily employed. This result, told in a sentence, required months of careful and wise management, with many visits by field agents. Not every case turns out favorably, even with patient and painstaking effort, but the impression of the investigator is that no effort is omitted to attain success.

Unfavorable criticism has been heard to the effect that field work so-called -- which included investigation of the case and bringing into action appropriate agencies for relief -- smacks too strongly of Associated Charities procedure. What such criticism really amounts to it is hard to determine, and without definition its consideration in respect to the work of the Commission is impracticable.

It seemed to this investigator that the field work is done with intelligence, sympathy, and effectiveness. The question of method is important, and some determination must soon be made whether this field work may better be done by the blind home teachers, increasing the number of these so that the addition to their duties will not withdraw them too much from their chief function of teaching, or by continuing the present method. I think the home teacher will be better able to get to the heart of most situations, but there is practically always need for using trained eyesight in making the investigation. Therefore, I should favor enlarging the function of the home teacher sufficiently to let the initial steps toward helping the blind be taken by the home teacher, and when the confidence of the subject is gained, a trained investigator should be called in by the home teacher.

2. Home Teaching has been only lately (since June, 1916) under the Commission's charge. For fifteen years this service to the blind has been rendered through the Perkins Institution, which was at the time of undertaking it the only State agency engaged in work for the blind. No more effective home teaching has been done anywhere, I believe, than in Massahusetts, due to the earnest and intelligent service of the teachers, some of whom have been in the service from 1900. Testimony to the good work of these teachers comes from all sources. In the change of status from employees of the Perkins Institution to service with the Commission, there have arisen questions of importance, some of them having to do wholly with administration or the personal equation, others with matters of principle; with the questions of length of vacation, supervision of the work, increased compensation, etc., the Commission seems to be dealing in a spirit of generosity as well as wisdom. I take up a few questions of principle: Is the field covered? No, or at most inadequately. Teachers seem to be spreading their efforts over too wide an area. More intensive work would seem possible if visits could he made to pupils more frequently, and less time spent in travel. If it be determined that to a home teacher should be assigned more social service along with teaching, then the restriction of field would be practicable, provided the number of teachers could be increased.

At this point it is proper to say that not one of the five teachers but gives more than faithful service, for every one works overtime and wholeheartedly. Already the effort had been made, before the teaching came under the Commission, while these home teachers were still part of Perkins Institution's organization, to do service to the State in ameliorating the condition of the blind, as well as service to the blind individuals by teaching them. That is, the home teachers had taken upon themselves social service, though they had, strictly speaking, no call to such work.

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In any change now, it seems to this investigator that the home teacher should become more of a figure, with added social service responsibilities, directly reporting to the General Superintendent, and supported and assisted in the case work by the field agent and staff. In no other way can cooperation with local agencies be so effectively secured as by making the home teacher a general local representative of all work for the blind, the State's man in the community, adviser and helper to the local organization, as well as the local organization's means of reaching its own blind problem. The home teacher must know how to secure such cooperation and be something of a social worker, interested in prevention of blindness, too -- in fact, the Commission's local representative for all its various interests.

It is an opportune moment for a review of the accomplishments of home teaching. To these teachers, as to all teachers, encouragement will come when they learn of the results of their efforts. Pupils receive instruction and then pass out of the teacher's ken. What use has been made of this instruction? How have the blind pupils benefited? A review of this sort is not only desirable but wholly possible with the admirable system of records maintained by the Commission.

3. Work in Competition with the Sighted in factories becomes more and more difficult to secure. That blind workers often do well has been asserted and proved so many times by the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind that it is now a truism. But the application of the Workmen's Compensation Law deters employers, and work for the blind in factories is only likely to be a success when the law of supply and demand forces employers to accept handicapped workmen when the unhandicapped are not to be had.

On the other hand, the man or woman in his own home, workshop, greenhouse, or wherever he may labor, may compete successfully with the sighted when subsidized, and this is as wholly desirable a form of subsidy as that of the subsidized shop.

This Commission has tried every conceivable means to secure opportunities for the blind to work in factories, with varying success, of course, but with such pertinacity and enthusiasm, such ingenuity and inventive ness, as to arouse the investigator's admiration.

4. A Salesroom for Home Products has been maintained, furnishing opportunities of employment to some who would probably otherwise be idle. Purchases of material are made and work on the material by blind operatives is paid for at fair rates; some make their own purchases and send their product to the salesroom on consignment. On work ordered by the Commission, transportation charges to and from the home of the worker are paid by the Commission. The blind worker at home receives the full selling price of an article, less cost of raw material. Consignors ship their consignments to the salesroom at their own expense.

This department is wholly justified, in the opinion of the investigator, though its turnover is small, and a judicious expansion of this business would be advisable.

A suggestion was made in the course of my investigation that purchases of materials to supply to workers in their homes, heretofore and at present made by home teachers as a friendly act on the part of these teachers and not officially a duty, might be made at a saving through a central purchasing agency. On inquiry it appeared that the total purchases in a year are between $300 and $400; so small a business would hardly justify the machinery of a central purchasing agency, and the establishment of such an agency is not recommended.

5. Local centers in aid of the blind in a community are desirable cooperating agencies. One such center (at New Bedford) has reported its satisfaction in rendering help to the blind of its neighborhood, and urges the formation of bands of philanthropically inclined persons for similar activity elsewhere. The benefits of such service are for the giver as much as for the recipient.

In conclusion, let me say that two questions immediately project themselves into any consideration of this organization's effectiveness. They are: What have been the results of the Commission's work in benefiting the State? What in serving the blind? I conceive that both the blind and the State are to be considered, not the blind alone.

As respects the blind in the community, the topic under consideration, I have answered these two questions under the several sub-topics, but this general statement may be accepted as the all-inclusive answer: Before all things else, the Commission has offered an improved viewpoint. By this the public have been helped to see the problem of the blind as their own problem. They have been taught to find the blind, to look upon their assistance and encouragement as a local problem; that the blind are not a class to be congregated, not to be shelved and neglected, but to be given a chance. And the blind in the community have been helped to find themselves and their place of greatest usefulness.

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Thus, while serving the State as its first duty, but in a vital sense both a warm and wise friend of the blind, the Commission is not primarily a dispenser of relief; rather it is an arm of the State lending needed uplift to the handicapped citizen, helping him to find himself in his community, and, on the other hand, saving to useful citizenship and active employment the person who might otherwise be dependent.