This condition lowered by the presence of a blind worker. necessitates the skilled services of one who has made a careful study of blindness, who can go to employers and tell them what are the facts. It is important that the one who is to do this should be a good judge of human nature, and should have careful and correct knowledge of each blind person for whom he is seeking employment. Not all blind people can work among a group of workers who see, with safety to themselves or with satisfaction to their employers. Care should be taken that such persons do not secure a place in industry; employment in the home or in the subsidized workshop should be found for them. This Board has such special knowledge of the blind, and is qualified to carry on a campaign for the placement of blind men and women in industry. For more than six years the Board has been giving time and effort to this phase of the work and has accomplished something of permanent worth. It has been regretted that with the press of other duties more time has not been found the past two years to give to this important field. In spite of unstable business conditions placements have been made during the two years ended June 30, 1924, and, what is most gratifying, to the satisfaction of the employers. At Manning, Bowman & Co. in Meriden careful consideration was given to accepting as an employe a man without sight. The experiment was tried and the blind worker was placed in the press room, where he would have to operate power machinery. The foreman was kind and showed a commendable willingness to give the matter a fair trial, but later admitted that he had been skeptical. Through the months that have followed the blind man has given an excellent demonstration of what a capable person who does not see can do by the practiced blending of the mental processes and the sense of touch. The superintendent of the factory spoke with us by telephone recently and said that the man's work was satisfactory and that he would not be laid off in times. of depression. He added that the experiment had worked out even better than the representative from this office had insisted that it would. An official of the Excelsior Hardware Co. in Stamford wrote to us to ask if we could recommend another blind man who was as capable as the one they had employed; if we could, they would like to employ him. That was a pleasing message. CONSERVATION OF VISION An increasing number of cases of seriously defective vision in school children are being reported to this Board, with the request that the child be accepted as a pupil at the School for the Blind. A careful investigation of some of these cases has convinced us that it probably would not be wise to send the child to such a school, where it would have to learn to read. with its fingers, and where it would form mental and physical associations which would serve to retard it in after years. Under the pressure which has been brought to bear by school authorities who are not cognizant of these conditions, that we admit such children to the School for the Blind, it has not been possible to come to any decision that has been satisfactory. These conditions have served to impress us strongly with the need for sight saving classes in the public schools of our larger cities. Certain progressive states have made grants to help meet the per capita cost in cities where conservation of vision. classes have been established. When this Board found that the State Board of Education was planning to come to the General Assembly of 1923 with a request for a small appropriation to help towns and cities in the establishment of classes for "educationally exceptional chidren," it was decided to merge the special interests of the semi-blind child with that of the larger group. The appropriations committee reported adversely and the bill was rejected. A special committee of this Board, consisting of Mr. Edward M. Day of Hartford, Miss Marian Feuchtwanger of New Haven and the secretary, thereupon renewed its efforts to secure the establishment of such classes in several of the larger cities. Its efforts were centered in New Haven where Dr. Eugene M. Blake, a leading eye specialist, and Mr. F. H. Beede, superintendent of schools, cooperated helpfully with the result that the Board of Education of the city voted late in the spring of 1924 to establish such a class. The National Committee for the Prevention of Blindness assisted in the effort and its secretary, Mrs. Winifred Hathaway, advised with the committee of this Board and came to New Haven, upon invitation of Mr. Beede, and addressed a meeting of public school teachers and normal school students upon sight saving methods. The committee of this Board later arranged with Mr. Fred D. Wish, superintendent of schools in Hartford, for a public meeting in that city for the furtherance of sight saving work, and Mrs. Hathaway was secured as the speaker. Plans have also been made with Mr. E. E. Cortright, superintendent of schools in Bridgeport, for a similar meeting there. Upon the suggestion of Mr. Stanley H. Holmes, superintendent of schools in New Britain, this Board is now making a survey of about 115 school children in that city who have seriously defective vision. A sight saving class has been started at the Nursery for the Blind at Farmington. Here several children who have usable vision are given instruction in the eye rather than the finger method of reading. Specially prepared text books, with large print, are used and the teacher writes out the spelling and arithmetic on paper, in a large hand, with a pencil of soft lead and of large proportions. The blackboard work is given with the same attention to detail. Care is taken that the child shall not unduly strain his eyes. PUBLICITY AND INFORMATION False notions regarding the blind, and what they can and cannot do, take such persistent lodgment in the public mind that workers in this field realize that they can do the cause a service by giving wide publicity to sane statements concerning the work. We have acquired a rather good set of lantern slides depicting various phases of the work in Connecticut and addresses have been given with these slides. In several instances a group of children from the School of the Blind have sung on such occasions, a feature which has added to the program. Several of the home teachers have addressed gatherings and have never failed to arouse an earnest and sympathetic interest in our work. Miss Feuchtwanger has given several addresses in New Haven which have served to deepen the interest in the work for the blind in that city. A partial list of the talks and illustrated addresses which have been given is as follows: School Nurses' Association, New Haven. 1922. Sept. 9. Sept. 18. Oct. 10. Nov. 7. Good Samaritan Chapter, King's Daughters, Hartford. Grange, Rocky Hill. Feb. 21. Mar. 13. Apr. 18. Good Samaritan Chapter, King's Daughters, Hartford 1. Central Medical Society, Middletown. May 13. Trinity Methodist Church, New Britain. May 27. First Baptist Church, Waterbury. Good Samaritan Chapter, King's Daughters, Hartford, Jan. 27. Congregational Church, South Manchester. Trinity Methodist Church, New Britain. South Park Methodist Church, Hartford. June 13. Board of Education, New Haven. The Board has also conducted sales at nearly every large general exhibition given at the State Armory in Hartford, and has coöperated at each of these with either the Trades Department or the School for the Blind in the presentation of some special feature of work for the blind which has had an educational value. Our sales in stores, churches and lodge rooms have also given opportunity for favorable and informing publicity about the work. This has been particularly true of the sales which have been conducted at state, county, and town fairs in the early fall. Not a little material acceptable to newspapers has been prepared in this office and has been sent to daily and weekly papers in Connecticut. It has had an educational value and through these notices we have learned of blind people to whom we have been able to be of service. Letters containing information and specific requests have been sent to the first selectman of every town and to all the eye specialists in the state. "There is no law on the statute books compelling people to move up closer on the bench of life to make room for a blind brother; but there is a divine law written on the hearts of men constraining them to make a place for him, not only because he is unfortunate, but also because it is his right as a human being to share God's greatest gift, the privilege of man to go forth unto his work. "The heaviest burden on the blind is not blindness, but idleness, and they can be relieved of this greater burden. The state can teach the blind to work, but their fellow citizens must furnish the market for their products." HELEN KELLER. |