Welfare of the Blind. #0285

--My grandfather returned from the Great War, to live the remainder of his life in a converted tuberculosis hospital in which the ST Dunstan principles were maintained. By the 1960's it had become much more modern and comfortable and he was no longer teaching Braille or going on day-trips with the Home. < simon62 >
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--Since 1893,when the education of blind children between five and sixteen was made compulsory by Act of Parliament, considerable progress has been made in ameliorating the condition of persons afflicted with blindness. As the result of a Departmental Committee report a special department of the Ministry of Health dealing with the welfare of the blind was set up, and an advisory committee appointed.
--The Blind Persons Act of 1920 provides for the payment of a pension of ten shillings ($1) a week to blind persons in indigent circumstances on their attaining the age of fifty; makes county councils and county borough councils responsible for the general care of the blind; and makes compulsory the registration of all charities for the blind.
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--Education,-
--Kindergarten schools and classes for blind children have been established at various centres, and special schools for mentally defective blind children at ST Leonards-on-sea and at Rhyl. The college of Teachers of the Blind was greatly improved the methods of teaching, especially in the direction of vocational training.
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--Employment,-
--As far as possible it is desirable that person's who have lost their sight as adults should continue to follow the occupations they had before they became blind, but where this is impracticable choice has to be made of one or other of the trades or occupations most suited to their condition, such as basket making, matress-making, carpentry, toy-making, knitting, &c.
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--Reading for the Blind,-
--Much progress has recently been made in the matter of providing literature for the blind. The methods of printing in Brailletype have been greatly improved, so as to admit of much more rapid production. The National Library for the Blind, 35, Gt. Smith St., S.W.1., distributes books to blind readers throughout the United Kingdom, and most Public Libraries have collections which are made use of. There are a number of magazines for different classes of readers, and two weekly newspapers published.
--Music Fir the blind is also provided in Braille type in the staff notation, the National Library containing many thousand volumes of music in addition to general literature.
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--ST Dunstan's,-
--This is an institution founded and conducted by the late Sir Arthur Pearson for sailors and soldiers blinded during the war. Sir Arthur's idea in training these men was that blindness was not to be considered as something which set them apart from their fellows, but should rather be regarded as a handicap to be overcome by teaching them self-help and self-reliance.
--ST Dunstan's was opened in 1915,and speedily became the recognized training centre for service men who had lost their sight in the war. (WW1 saw the increase in development and use of chemical weapons, such as that which caused so many to become blind, namely Mustard Gas.) Class-rooms, work-shops, recreation rooms and dormitories were erected in the grounds, and the work of training the men in various occupations was enthusiastically entered upon, many hundreds of men and women giving freely of their time to their entertainment and instruction. They were taken to concerts and theatres, took part in out-door sports, swimming, rowing, &c., and in general were encouraged to look upon themselves as normal persons with a certain handicap. All were taught typewriting, and to read and write in Braille, in addition to some occupation at which they could earn a livelihood.
• < EWUE 118th Ed. HJLtd Pub. 1933 >
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--My grandparents were married during this period immediately after the war when grandfather was recovering, but my Mother, an only child, was not born until 1925. I can hardly imagine today, with the children's nano-tech and modern appliances, how very difficult those days would have been to my grandma. I have seen as a child, many Braille books, and this last twenty-five year revolution in technology would have made so much difference to grandfather, who, before the war had been a delivery dray driver, travelling to every city and town and large village all over England, delivering farm implements and animal feed. To go off a young man with an established career, and return to start again, in a technology we today can only imagine seeing bits in museums. These were the boys who saved our lives. Our ancestors who survived the trenches, the gas, and at home the Spanish influenza. Today we are sad to see hundreds returning serviceman in our hospitals, but over four years our volunteers saw thousands crippled and blinded, and the children today Do need reminding, that the glory is not the going, but the keeping on, afterwards. There sometimes is no alternative to fight for our freedom, but we all need to Take the Politicians who decide, with us, that the decisions of going, or negotiating, are harder fought!
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