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PERKINS PUBLICATION

During the year many publications have concerned themselves with our field. An article featuring Perkins appeared in the May issue of Coronet. This brought many comments and letters. Interest in the blind has been stimulated by the war, and reports of the activities of both the war blinded and the civilian blind have seemed to increase in number, as they have been featured in many magazines and newspaper articles. Many of them, we regret to say, reveal an unfortunate limitation of knowledge of the blind and the work that is being done for them and by them. These facts substantiate the feeling that has prevailed at Perkins that our function is not only to provide instruction for blind children, but also to educate seeing people regarding the blind and their capabilities. To fulfill that function a number of articles by members of the Perkins staff hay appeared in publications within and without our field.

Four publications will be mentioned: one, a book entitled "Wings for Ruth," published by W. A. Wilde, tells in fiction form the experience of a child attending Perkins. The author of the book is Rosan Clarke, which is the pen name of Mrs. Jessie W. Mayshark, a teacher in our Lower School. The second publication, quite different, is "Vocational Aptitude Testing," by Samuel P. Hayes of the Perkins staff and number thirteen in the series of Perkins Publications. This tells what has been done in the way of developing and adapting vocational tests for the blind, and presents a most comprehensive study of the field. This book has been widely requested, and orders are coming in constantly for copies of it. The third publication is a Report of the Summer School Project, written by Miss Frances E. Marshall, Psychiatric Social Worker of Perkins, and Miss Ruth M. Butler, Medical Social Worker of the Eye and Ear Infirmary. This is a forty-eight-page account of the program and activities of the summer school which was held at Perkins June 17 to 30, 1945. It contains a full account of the planning, and sets down certain principles which should be followed in a program of this type. This report was written largely because of the many requests that were coming to us for information about this project, and for our opinion regarding programs for little blind children. Fourth, the Director has again been asked to write the article on The Blind of the United States, for the Social Work Year Book published by the Russell Sage Foundation.

LEGISLATION FOR THE BLIND

During the year, the Director continued to serve as Chairman of the Committee on Legislation of the American Association of the Instructors of the Blind. While a great many bills pertaining to the problems of blindness and for the benefit of the blind were introduced into the 79th Congress, none of any great importance was enacted into law. The Wagner Bill, which proposed to amend the Social Security Act by eliminating Title Ten (which provides federal support on a fifty-fifty basis for benefits to the needy blind), did not emerge from committee. Some interested in the blind opposed this amendment, because it would have put the blind in the same category as other needy persons. The Congress did, however, amend the Social Security Act so that the Federal Government, beginning October 1, 1946, will pay ten out of the first fifteen dollars of assistance granted by the state, and fifty percent of any payment up to twenty-five dollars as the Federal Government's share. This means approximately a five dollar a month increase for those entitled to benefits under this legislation.

Proponents of wider assistance to the blind have been urging that, in place of the provision of Title Ten, there should be set up in the Social Security Act a special plan for the blind which would correspond in pattern, but not in detail, to the Old Age and Survivor's Insurance Plan. Under this proposal all employed persons would contribute to the fund on the same basis as wage earners now contribute to the Old Age Fund, and then in the case of blindness, each person covered would be entitled to financial aid in the same way that people are now receiving an annuity under the Social Security Act upon attaining the age of sixty-five. While this would assure financial assistance to those employed and covered, it would not provide for those who are born blind or who lost their sight before becoming wage earners. Many proposals for this coverage have been made including one in the form of a tax on electric light bulbs, on the basis that those who enjoy light therefrom might well share with those who live in darkness.

The only other important federal legislation of the year was the amendment of the Pratt-Smoot Bill passed in 1931, which makes federal funds available for reading matter for the adult blind. The funds for this purpose were originally $125,000.00 a year for embossed books, but in 1944 this appropriation was increased to $500,000.00 a year and broadened to include recorded books, and the distribution and servicing of reproducing machines. On August 8, 1946, this appropriation was increased to $1,125,000.00 annually. $200,000.00 of the total must be expended for books in raised characters, and the balance may be used for sound reproduction recordings, and the purchase, replacement, and maintenance of reproducers or Talking Books. The Seventy-ninth Congress, however, adjourned without making an appropriation to implement this legislation.