Directed toward practitioners and program administrators in the field of vocational rehabilitation, the report deals with current concerns, issues, and practices related to rehabilitation of the blind in public and private agencies. The first chapter provides an overview of the document. Chapter 2 reports on existing and emerging occupational…

A study explored the types of services that 40 schools for students with visual impairments provided to students in local education agencies, the extent of collaboration, and perceived changes to improve the process. Most schools continue to serve a dual role as residential/day schools and as outreach service providers. (Contains 8 references.)…

Examines literature for guiding libraries to develop services that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Presents a case of the University of Alabama Libraries' establishment of a technologies lab to serve the needs of the blind, visually impaired, and learning disabled students; examines problems and efforts to increase staff…

This study explores children's understanding of the causal origins of disabilities. Using a forced-choice explanation task, children's understanding of social-psychological, physical, and biological causal explanations of disabilities was considered. We presented 79 children (26 4- to 5-year-olds, 26 6- to 7-year-olds, and 27 10- to 11-year-olds)…

This project identified over 500 critical incidents of successful and unsuccessful instruction in science and mathematics courses reported through interviews of 105 blind college students. The principal categories of effective teacher behavior included planned concrete learning experiences, creative use of learning materials, and detailed…

Situations in which sighted people behaved inappropiately toward blind individuals were recalled by 60 blind subjects, who described their reactions and feelings and offered suggestions for sighted people. A lack of knowledge and understanding of the skills, abilities, and feelings of visually impaired individuals were revealed. (SEW)

This study analyzed scores of 469 British adult clients with recent loss of sight on the Nottingham Adjustment Scale using LISREL structural modeling techniques. Results supported a theoretical model of the self in terms of two latent factors--internal self-worth and self as agent. Implications for rehabilitation and intervention with cognitive…

A survey of 790 blind and visually impaired persons in Arkansas assessed their use of technological assistive devices and their unmet needs, focusing on life functioning, spending practices and credit options for purchasing devices, funding support systems, travel practices, information sources, and satisfaction with services and devices.…

These seven presentations cover various aspects of career development and employment of the visually impaired. "Career Development Theory Applied to the Delivery of Services to Blind and Visually Impaired Persons" (William H. Graves) describes the Career Development Intervention Strategy model developed by the Rehabilitation Research and Training…

A practical system for producing a union catalog of titles in the collections of the Library of Congress Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (DBPH), its regional network, and related agencies from a machine-readable data base is presented. The DBPH organization and operations and the associated regional library network are analyzed.…

Operations at the Boston Center for Blind Children's day preschool for visually-impaired, multihandicapped children (3- to 8-years-old) are described. The following stages of evaluation and planning are identified: development of a treatment plan based on performance in the developmental areas of self-help, language, motor skills, socialization,…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that investigated differences in vocational rehabilitation (VR) services (expenditures, number, and duration) and outcomes (competitive sector placement and earnings) of consumers designated as legally blind in states with separate or combined (cross-disability) agencies. The sample included 35,396…

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…

An interactive, computerized sound machine was designed, incorporating bar-code technology in the user interface. The system was used in a classroom of nine blind elementary level children to teach sound awareness, logic, metalinguistics, and technological literacy and was found to have pedagogical relevance. (Author/JDD)

A survey of 42 Irish and Belgian blind and partially sighted students (ages 12 to 18) and interviews with 6 Irish and Belgian mathematics teachers found that few of the students took higher-level mathematics examinations, due primarily to mathematical-access difficulties. A computer-based system providing both menu and command (keyboard and voice)…