The Miami Lighthouse, in its 81 years of service to persons who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision), has adapted to meet the ever-changing needs of clients of all ages. To meet the significant needs of visually impaired children--more than 80% of early learning is visual (Blind Babies Foundation, 2012)--the…

An ex-post-facto research study of family attitudes toward blindness as reported by three different groups of rehabilitation closures revealed a number of significant differences between the groups on a semantic differential scale, which suggests that the family is a major contributing factor to successul rehabilitation and to securing gainful…

The synopsis describes development by the Mississippi Vocational Rehabilitation for the Blind Agency of a data processing system to improve service delivery for clients and enhance the cost-effectiveness of agency resources. (Author/MC)

The study to determine rehabilitation feasibility of blind and visually impaired disability beneficiaries found that successfully rehabilitated clients were likely to be older and better educated, to require more money to be spent on case services, to receive a higher number of services, and to spend less time on agency rolls. (Author/DB)

A survey of 40 directors of the Randolph-Sheppard Vending Facility Program (more often known as the Business Enterprise Program), which provides legally blind persons with employment operating vending facilities on federal property, indicated that legally blind women are significantly underrepresented, making up about 24% of the licensed facility…

This study of 270 legally blind adults found that those who had attended specialized schools for blind persons made significantly less money than those who had attended public schools. However, 72% of specialized school attendees could read braille, compared to 19.7% of public-school attendees. (DB)

This report is based on a paper that was presented at the 2004 Biregional Randolph-Sheppard Training Conference in Philadelphia. A review of various state licensing agency (SLA) policy manuals by the author revealed no specific SLA policies on reciprocity or guidelines on setting up and managing facilities out of state or on the recognition of…

This report on strategies for overcoming employment barriers for persons with visual impairments summarizes comments and suggestions of 7 focus groups comprised of either consumers (n=49) or employers (n=19). The report first reviews the literature concerning employment barriers and how consumers in previous studies suggested these barriers be…

This article discusses self-employment as an employment option for individuals who are blind. Analysis of trends indicates the total number of facility managers who are blind in the Randolph-Sheppard Program declined from 3,524 in 1994 to 2,711 in FY 2001 and that self-employment outcomes typically cost less than competitive outcomes. (Contains…

The Randolph-Sheppard Act of 1936 established the Randolph-Sheppard Vending Facility Program, more commonly known in most states as the Business Enterprise Program (BEP). The BEP is described as a program that provides persons with blindness with remunerative employment and self-support through the operation of vending facilities on federal…