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Where the cities make adequate provision, as in some places in Ohio, blind residents of those cities may spend most all of their school years in the public school classes. In other states, where elaborate provision has not been made for blind pupils, the institution often enrolls the blind children for preliminary training and gradually works them into the public school classes, either in the neighborhood of the residential schools or in their own home communities.

It is difficult to trace any consistent development of classroom teaching methods in the United States. Many of the schools have been isolated one from another and have therefore been slow to learn of successful methods in other places. The great majority of teachers in the schools for the blind have not been especially trained for their work. During the first twenty-five years of the century superintendents seemed to feel that almost anyone could teach blind children. Some of the schools which are justly proud today of their educational standards, a quarter of a century ago did not hesitate to place entirely untrained graduates in charge of classes for the blind who taught by methods by which untrained teachers before them had taught them. Some of these schools, in cases of emergency, would draw from their dining room staffs of waitresses to take charge of third and fourth grade classes. On the other hand, other schools as far back as the first decade of the century had on their faculties many normal school graduates who were successfully adapting teaching methods for seeing children to the requirements of blind children.

Reading by word form, which some of the best teachers today are introducing as an innovation, was the subject of a heated discussion at the 1910 Little Rock convention of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind. Prominent superintendents listened with skepticism to a young teacher from Utah who told of teaching braille by word form. Only in recent years has there been any consistent progress which could be said to be a national trend in teaching methods especially adapted to the blind. Younger teachers are now for the most part drawn from teachers' colleges and follow pretty closely the educational trends of the public schools.

It can be said, however, that there has been progress made in the use of certain special appliances. It was early recognized by educators of the blind that special measures must be taken to ensure the schools the special equipment needed for the education of blind children, such as braille slates, mathematical devices, and others. Only with assistance from the Federal Government could this need be met. Therefore, the history of the efforts to secure such assistance coincides with the history of the American Printing House for the Blind.

The Printing House was organized as a Kentucky corporation, not for profit, in 1858. It was to be maintained by a special tax passed by the Kentucky legislature which made available five dollars annually for each blind resident of the state. Several books were printed at this establishment which at first was housed in the basement of the Kentucky School for the Blind.

In 1876 the American Association of Instructors of the Blind set up a committee to work out a plan for national cooperation. It was hoped that other states would join with Kentucky in maintaining a printing house for the blind. The exigencies of the Civil War and the years that followed, however, soon made it apparent that while some money could be raised in different states from private contributions, little could be accomplished with joint state action. The Kentucky establishment was not alone, as small printing plants had long been maintained at Perkins Institution, the New York Institution for the Blind, the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, and by the Virginia School for the Blind. But joint action was not forthcoming.

In 1879 a bill passed Congress making available to the American Printing House for the Blind the interest from $250,000 worth of United States bonds which were to mature in forty years. The income from these bonds was turned over to the Printing House with the understanding that it would revise its charter so that in addition to the seven citizens of Louisville who were to act as trustees and managing executive committee, the superintendents of every public institution for the education of the blind would be ex officio members of the governing board.

The Printing House started in a very small way. In 1880 there were six or eight employees. In 1950 the staff had grown to two hundred full-time employees and fifty part-time workers. It has on its board several subcommittees, most important of which are the executive committee consisting of the local Louisville citizens, and the printing committee which selects the books to be embossed.

The first superintendent of the American Printing House for the Blind was Benjamin B. Huntoon who was also superintendent of the Kentucky School for the Blind. Mr. Huntoon was extremely interested in the production of embossed books and devoted much of his time and genius to perfecting not only books in tangible type but also to improving and manufacturing tangible type slates, mathematical appliances and maps. Large dissected maps carved from laminated wood were the pride of the institution. Mr. Huntoon carved many of these maps with his own hands. This was a tedious job but the product was not only a superb educational appliance to those who must depend upon their fingers for their concepts, but also had much eye appeal. To the present day Mr. Huntoon has had five successors as superintendents of the Printing House. They have all been called from the ranks of superintendents of schools for the blind.