In earlier "humanitarian" accounts, Britain's voluntary blind institutions exemplified successful nineteenth-century philanthropy and later became effective partners of the state. From the 1970s, Victorian charity came increasingly under criticism and subsequent studies on disability condemn the exclusion and utilitarian training of a Foucauldian "Age of Confinement". Recent defences of the private record in blind welfare and education claim voluntarisms survival proves its value and strengths. Social responses to blindness have often been complex and those involved in the early education of the blind should not be judged too categorically. The comparative poverty of Britain's overall provision may be explained by the long absence of the state but positive initiatives did emerge. Worcester College's pupils attained academic excellence and encouraging attempts at integration by some school boards demonstrated an alternative to confinement. The relatively small impact of these experiments, nationally, was attributable to particular elements in Britain's educational culture. (Contains 98 endnotes.)