The most recent data on the labor force participation rate of individuals who identify as being blind or having vision loss in the United States indicate it is approximately 44%. In 2014, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs promulgated regulations pertaining to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to address the continued…

To prepare high school graduates with visual impairments for college, staff members at Perkins School for the Blind developed a nine month residential program, College Success@Perkins. This article describes components of the program design and provides data on eight students who successfully completed the program in the first cohort. It concludes…

In this article, the author, a parent of Malik, a special needs child with CHARGE Syndrome, describes the difficulties she encountered with her local educational agency (LEA) in transitioning her son from the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts to the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf (ENCSD). At ENCSD, Malik now…

Most of the spatial information needed by sighted people to construct cognitive maps of spaces is gathered through the visual channel. Unfortunately, people who are blind lack the ability to collect the required spatial information in advance. The use of virtual reality as a learning and rehabilitation tool for people with disabilities has been on…

'The Blind Advantage" provides insight into the challenges, possibilities, and practicalities of including students with disabilities--and into the mind and heart of an inspired and determined leader. "You should get out of education." That was the advice first-year teacher Bill Henderson received when he discovered he was gradually…

The purpose of this study is to describe some of the ways deaf-blind projects collect National Technical Assistance Consortium for Children and Youth with Deaf-Blindness (NTAC) census data, compare Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Child Count and NTAC census data for the ten states included in this study and identify issues and concerns…

Over the past decade, testing has become an important component of education reform efforts. Currently, 49 states have formal programs that annually test students in all public schools. Although the subject areas and grade levels tested vary widely across states, the most recent federal education legislation requires all states to administer…

THIS RESEARCH ATTEMPTED TO ESTABLISH A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROBLEMS OF CONGENITALLY TOTALLY BLIND CHILDREN AND TO TEST THE POSSIBILITY OF MEETING THESE PROBLEMS WITH A SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAM IN GENERAL ORIENTATION AND SPACE PERCEPTION. A SAMPLE OF 60 CHILDREN WAS SELECTED FOR THE EXPERIMENT. THESE SUBJECTS WERE WITHOUT ADDITIONAL…

Kim Charlson believes everyone should live life to the fullest no matter what their handicaps. Blind since early childhood, she chose librarianship because, as a braille reader and avid user of talking books, she wanted to be "in a decision-making capacity in the library field and influence the direction of library services for people with…

Teachers and habilitative specialists (n=120) of multiply handicapped blind and deaf-blind children in Massachusetts responded to a survey on the use of assistive technology. Respondents reported problems in knowledge of electronic mobility aids and communication devices; the availability, maintenance, and funding of devices; and adequate…

The Carroll Center for the Blind operates the Ed-Tech Loan Program which enables Massachusetts schools to borrow adaptive computer devices for blind students. For $50 per month, with a three-month maximum, schools can borrow braille printers, large-print processors, talking software, or speech or braille laptop computers to evaluate before making…

The Commissioner of Education reports on the work of the office and its publications over the year. Statistical summaries and discussion are presented on enrollment; attendance; teacher workforce and pay; school finance; state and territorial education; kindergarten; city education; education of the colored race; institutions for the superior…