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The Social Security Act has, since its inception, been criticized on the grounds that it did not permit state administrators of relief to take into account certain special expenses which blind people must incur as a direct result of their lack of sight. It was pointed out that blind people, unlike sighted people in the same economic level, must hire guides, pay for readers, disburse many more tips, resort to taxis instead of buses, pay more for cleaning clothes in order to be presentable, etc.

This criticism has been met in many states by administrative regulations, though it must be admitted that in far too many communities social workers determining the amount of aid to be given have been following too slavishly the budget prepared for the far more numerous recipients of old-age relief who enjoy a fair amount of sight and therefore do not have many of the expenses which a blind person must meet.

In 1949 a passage in an amendment to the Social Security Act required that state administrators take into account in an individual's needs the special expenses arising from blindness. However, this particular clause was eliminated from the amendment when it was finally passed by Congress in 1950.

It has also been contended that since much blindness could have been prevented had society taken the precautions which a civilized community should have exercised, the state in common justice should give all blind people a monetary allowance or pension which would be in the nature of a compensation or handicap allowance. No legal action has been taken on this matter.

THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND

Dr. Irwin was Director of Research and Education when the Foundation opened its first modest offices in 1923. In 1929 he became Executive Director of the fast-growing agency. For the years of his directorship his name was practically synonymous with that of the American Foundation for the Blind.

THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND when promoted in 1921 did not represent a new idea. Mary Fowler, as far back as 1902, had dreamed of a national agency for the blind. Certainly Charles F. F. Campbell's fertile imagination envisioned a national organization for the blind as far back as 1906 or perhaps earlier. His first step in the consummation of such a dream was the establishment of the Outlook for the Blind in 1907. But the country was not ready for it yet. Only a few of the more foresighted among workers for the blind felt the need of a national agency.

Ten years later, when "Evergreen," the Red Cross Institute for the Blind at Baltimore, Maryland was set up in 1918 for the training of the blinded soldiers and sailors of the first world war, its sponsors became interested in converting it eventually into a national organization for all the blind. Foremost among the promoters of this idea were Lieutenant-Colonel James Bordley, Director of the institute, L. W. Wallace, his successor as director, and Charles F. F. Campbell, who served on the staff as assistant director. All of these men were outspoken in their efforts to show the need for a national agency such as they had in mind, and in their criticism of existing conditions.

On the other hand, the then leading schools for the blind -- Perkins, Overbrook, and New York -- had become in the minds of the general public and also, perhaps, in the minds of their own managers, sources of information and inspiration on every phase of work for the blind. However, in the 1919 Annual Report of Perkins Institution, its cautious but imaginative Director, Edward E. Allen, wrote in part:

"Some permanent institute or agency wisely run under national auspices in trying out new, old or even abandoned fields, and for fitting the civilian blind to enter them; also for persuading employers to hire them without prejudice -- something of this sort, the schools for the young blind which are mainly prevocational in aim, would welcome as a much needed adjunct to their work."

Other influential voices were heard in favor of the idea. In 1920, pursuant to an address by Mr. L. W. Wallace, Director of the Red Cross Institute for the Blind, the American Association of Instructors of the Blind adopted the following resolution:

"That this Association would welcome the cooperation of some wisely organized agency for assisting and improving the vocational education and the employment of the blind of this country, such as has been outlined at this convention."

At about this time the author, who was then supervisor of classes for the blind in the public schools of Ohio, visited Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore in an effort to find someone who would be interested in setting up a research organization. In Baltimore he had a conference with his friend H. Randolph Latimer of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind, then president of the American Association of Workers for the Blind. After some discussion of the subject, Mr. Latimer undertook to launch a movement to establish an organization much broader than a research agency, somewhat in line with what had been proposed by Mr. Wallace at the American Association of Instructors of the Blind convention. He envisioned an agency which would not only carry on research work but would also further work for the blind of all kinds through public education, supplying technical counsel and encouragement wherever it was felt that such activities would bear fruit in the form of broader and more efficient activities in behalf of the blind. In order to win the support of workers for the blind in general, he proposed to build the program for the 1921 convention of the American Association of Workers for the Blind around the idea of a national agency for the blind.