the causes and extent of blindness and impaired vision. Through a consultant staff, help is given in advancing the early detection and treatment of eye defects and diseases and in disseminating knowledge about eye health and protection, both among professional groups and the general public.

In the field of education, the Society evaluates and furnishes information about vision-testing methods for the preschool and school-age groups; assists educational authorities in improving environmental conditions affecting eye health and efficiency; promotes the establishment of classes for the education of children with serious eye defects; and aids in the preparation of teachers and supervisors for this branch of special education.

The Society publishes vision-testing charts, posters, films, and a wide variety of pamphlets. These materials are furnished at nominal cost. The Society also publishes a quarterly journal, the Sight-Saving Review.

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The American Foundation for the Blind is a national organization whose purpose is to promote the interests of the blind throughout the United States in close cooperation with Federal, State, and local organizations. It is managed by a board of trustees and is maintained by voluntary contributions and income from endowment and memberships.

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The Foundation disseminates information regarding all phases of the work for the blind; promotes State and Federal legislation in behalf of the blind; develops and sells at cost special appliances for their use, such as Talking Book machines and special Braille typewriters; arranges for the establishment and improvement of agencies needed for the blind throughout the country; assists in increasing professional training courses for teachers and other workers for the blind; and conducts a special department to deal with the problems of the deaf-blind. The Foundation also cooperates with the authorities charged with the rehabilitation of war-blinded service personnel and with other Federal agencies working with the blind; awards scholarships; maintains a reference and lending library of inkprint books relating to the blind; conducts a model vocation center for blind girls and women; publishes books and pamphlets as well as four magazines Outlook for the Blind and the Teachers Forum, Talking Book Topics, Touch and Go (for the deaf-blind), and The Braille Book Review.

The American Printing House for the Blind is a national, nonprofit agency sponsored by the Federal Government. Its primary work is the extension of its services to the schools and classes for the blind through the Federal act "To Promote the Education of the Blind." This act, originally passed

Affiliated agencies: American Foundation for the Overseas Blind, organized to provide aid to the blind of Europe and to assist in the rehabilitation of the blind in all parts of the world; and National Industries for the Blind, acting in a liaison capacity between Federal and other purchasing agents and the various workshops for the blind, and promoting cooperation among the workshops for the blind in broadening the employment of the blind.

A record-playing machine for which transcriptions of informational and factual books are available. 9 (See illustration, p. 25.)

in 1879, is designed to furnish to the Printing House the funds to provide the free school texts, tactile apparatus, and other supplementary material necessary in the education of pupils under instruction in the schools and classes for the blind throughout the United States and its Territories. The Printing House maintains three catalogs, which are as follows:

1. A general catalog of Braille publications and appliances.

2. A music catalog.

3. A catalog of Talking Book records.

Since the Printing House is a nonprofit agency, it can offer its facilities to any other agency wishing to have the House do its manufacturing. Books and materials are supplied under contract in accordance with such specifications as may be required by the contracting agency.

patriotism

Courtesy, Allentown, Pa., Public Schools

One partially seeing boy writes on board with large chalk while another boy finds word in large-type dictionary

WHAT SOME GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES DO

The Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, includes in the Division of State and Local School Systems a Section on Exceptional Children and Youth. The term "exceptional" refers to: (1) The various types of physi

cally handicapped, such as the blind, and partially seeing, the deaf and hardof-hearing, cardiopathic, speech-defective, and those children with special health problems, such as epilepsy or diabetes; (2) the mentally retarded; (3) the mentally gifted; and (4) the emotionally disturbed or socially handicapped. The function of this Section, like that of the Office of Education as a whole, is to collect and disseminate statistical data and to give information and consultative services concerning the organization and management of schools. The Section on Exceptional Children and Youth gives such service with reference to special education. The staff members work closely with State departments of education, teacher-education institutions. residential schools, city and county school sysems, and national public and private agencies. Through publications, conferences, and correspondence, they also give information to individual parents, teachers, and others interested in exceptional children.

The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Federal Security Agency, has a program operating under the legislation passed in the act of 1920, as amended. Under this legislation Federal funds were made available on a grant-in-aid basis to State boards of vocational education. The provisions of this act have been extended so that all disabled persons of 16 years of age or over, with employment handicaps, may secure services through State and regional offices. These services include: Medical diagnosis and prognosis; vocational counseling; medical and surgical treatment; physical and occupational therapy and psychiatric treatment; and vocational training, placement, and follow-up. In each case such service must be directed toward employment. The State vocational rehabilitation agencies, working through their regional offices, are official sources of practical assistance to older boys and girls who are visually handicapped.

The Children's Bureau, Social Security Administration, Federal Security Agency, under the provision of the Social Security Act, now has a public program of services for crippled children. This program is carried on by State agencies, assisted by Federal grants-in-aid administered by the Children's Bureau. The term "crippled" is now so broadly interpreted that States may use Federal grant-in-aid funds for some types of visually handicapped children if the State agency so wishes. According to the Children's Bureau:

The legal or administrative definition of a crippled child should be very broad, and not restricted to a limited number of handicapping conditions # *

Many of the State crippled children's programs were initially limited to orthopedic conditions, but now, with additional resources, they include children with conditions requiring plastic surgery, with rheumatic heart disease, diabetes, cerebral palsy, hearing and visual deficiencies, and many other handicapping conditions.10

10 Daily, Edwin F. To Restore Crippled Children. The Child, 14: 26-28, August 1949.

Making the school program serve the child's needs

PECIAL PROVISIONS for the education of visually handicapped children are most commonly made in the United States either in public day schools (through adjustment in regular classes or placement in special classes) or in residential schools for blind children. For a small number of children, parents use private funds to employ tutors, but this practice is relatively rare. To decide what educational provisions are feasible or possible for a boy or girl, both the child and the resources of his community should be studied.

Not every community will find it practical or possible to provide special classes. Many children with partial vision, as well as those with other physical handicaps, live in communities where the population is too small to make special classes practical. Here and there in these communities will be found a partially seeing child failing in his school work; a blind child whose parents are unfamiliar with the educational provisions for blind children; a hard-of-hearing child isolated because he cannot hear; or a cerebral-palsied child growing up without the speech training he may so desperately need. Each of these children requires a special service. For example, the first one needs special equipment; the second one must learn Braille among other things; the third one should have special help with his speech; and the fourth should have a closely supervised medical program, perhaps including the services of physical and occupational therapists.

Meeting Educational Needs in Various Ways

The needs of visually handicapped children vary from one to another, just as community resources differ from place to place. After the child's needs and the community resources have been explored, a flexible plan should be made for his education. This plan should be reevaluated from time to time, and adjustments should follow periodically on the basis of these reevaluations. One of the most pressing questions in special education is: "How are the schools to serve rural children who have serious handicaps?" Where there is a consolidated school it may afford the opportunity for a center for the education of handicapped children. In some communities, various interdistrict arrangements have also been made. In one county, a special education program is divided according to districts: One district takes all the crippled children in the county; another provides for all the partially seeing children. Where the population is sparse, even larger areas need to combine their efforts. Occasionally, inter-county arrangements are effective and practical. In one situation, for instance, a State line is disregarded so that day. school provisions can be made for physically handicapped children living in two States. Boarding homes have been used successfully in several States,

particularly where isolated children do not have access to special-school facilities.

In Oregon, a State with a large rural population, a child may go to the residential school for the blind for a period of adjustment and training. When this is the case, the superintendent of the residential school works closely with the Consultant, Education of the Visually Handicapped, in the Oregon State Department of Education, in planning for the child. Before he goes back to his home county, much preliminary work is also done with his local school. The State consultant furthermore continues to supervise and to help his teachers after the child has returned to his home school.

In Oregon adjustments are made for many visually handicapped children so that they may remain in the local public schools. The Oregon plan is based on the principle that no child should be in a special school because of his handicap unless it is absolutely necessary. Oregon reports that for the 5-year period from 1943 to 1948 there were 175 new additions to the State School for the Blind in a total enrollment of 231 blind and partially seeing children. "One hundred sixty-two of the 231 children left the residential school by June 1948. Twenty-eight of these left for such reasons as illness. the remaining 134 left to attend public school

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For a good many partially seeing children, the opportunity for education will depend largely upon the ability of the regular classroom teacher to give them the necessary help. This may, in some cases, be in the form of equipment, such as a special desk, a typewriter, or large-type books. In other cases it may be help from a professional person able to give guidance to parents and teachers. Regular classroom teachers will be increasingly involved in the education of such children as the schools genuinely apply the theory of education for "all the children of all the people." Even when special classes are provided, the pupils usually spend as much as half of the day in regular classes. These conditions seem to mean that all teachers should know at least how to give some help to children with visual handicaps. As one reviews the cases of Jane and John reported earlier in this bulletin, it is easy to see that they had many special needs and required special help from the schools extending over a long period of time. Jane will probably be able to secure an education only if she remains in a sight-saving class throughout her elementary years and possibly during high-school days. John in the course of his education attended a State school for the blind, a public day high school, and now attends a State university.

Special Classes for Children With Partial Vision

In the cities and in some rural school districts, the problem of partial vision is met increasingly by the services of a special day class for the low-visioned

1 Dry, Walter R., The Coordination of the Work of the Residential School for the Blind with That of the Public School. Outlook for the Blind, 42: 207-212. September 1948.