Under this section grants-in-aid are made available to the States in order that all blind persons might be provided with training in Braille and other forms of reading and writing, in manual dexterity, in travel, and in personal adjustment; supplies, devices and equipment necessary for training, and for those in financial need, supplies, devices and equipment necessary to assist blind persons to adjust to blindness. It further provides that the Federal Government share with the States the cost of distributing and transporting for repair of talking books and other sound reproducing equipment. This proposal would extend adjustment training services to upward of 230,000 blind persons who require this service.

It is generally agreed and accepted that adequate workshops offer a feasible approach to training and conditioning for many types of disabled persons whereas for others it represents their only opportunity for remunerative employment. Current estimates indicate that existing workshops are capable of absorbing about 10 percent of the nonblind and about 20 percent of the blind. As far as we have been able to determine 9 States are without any workshops for the former and 12 without workshops for the blind. The report of the Subcommittee on Aid to the Physically Handicapped (79th Cong.) concluded that

the provision of well-conducted workshops for those who need this type of employment is not adequate

and recommended

Grants-in-aid to the States for vocational rehabilitation services should be extended and the law amended to cover the establishment of sheltered workshops as a part of the rehabilitation process.

H. R. 5577 makes available grants-in-aid to the States for the necessary cost of: alteration of existing buildings to adapt them to workshop purposes or to increase the employment opportunities therein. (excluding the cost of land or buildings); the acquisition of initial equipment for the establishment of workshops or to increase the employment opportunities therein; the provision of auxiliary services of a medical character which are necessary to continue such disabled persons in employment and to safeguard and protect the health of such workers.

The present Vocation Rehabilitation Act authorizes reimbursement to the States to prepare severely disabled persons for employment in their homes, but not for assisting in production, or for developing marketing outlets for their products. Section 4 of the bill authorizes grants-in-aid to the States for instruction in the design and production of marketable articles; provides, to those in financial need, production equipment, stocks and supplies necessary to start production and arrangement for purchase and delivery of stocks and supplies and for insuring marketing of articles produced. In effect it provides continuing services to the home-bound, in addition to training and other services provided under the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, by establishing the only type of employment opportunity available to them.

Parallelling the authority in the bill for establishing workshops and home employment is the provision for grants-in-aid to assist the States in establishing severely disabled persons in small business

enterprises. Under this provision, the States must assume responsibility for providing management and supervisory services for such business enterprises. This approach is necessary to assure the success of the business enterprises program, to protect the businesses established thereunder as continuing employment opportunities for disabled persons, and to assure that the program will contribute to the maximum degree possible to the social and economic welfare of the severely disabled. Present appropriation language authorizes grants to the States for business enterprises programs for the blind. H. R. 5577 sets forth this authority in basic legislation and extends the program to include severely disabled persons other than the blind. Federal financial assistance would be available to the States for the cost of establishing small business enterprises and for initial stocks of merchandise, and for 5 years after the enactment of such amendment, for the cost of providing supervision and management to such business enterprises.

As has already been pointed out to this committee, one of the most urgent needs of the vocational rehabilitation program is for centers and facilities in which all necessary therapies, counseling, and training may be provided concurrently or as needed to effect the maximum development of the disabled individual's abilities. The lack of these facilities at present prevents the rehabilitation of more of the severely disabled.

Title IV of H. R. 5577, would meet this need by authorizing grantsin-aid to the States for constructing and equipping rehabilitation centers and specialized facilities which might be established under public or nonprofit auspices. Such proposal would require the inclusion, as a part of the State plan, of rules, regulations, and standards for: observance of minimum standards for the establishment, maintenance and operation of the center and the provision of services in accordance with professional standards; preference to persons referred by the State rehabilitation agencies and the provision of services at reasonable rates; and assurance that centers will remain available for provision of services to the disabled. The need for each center would be justified and if within 20 years the center ceases to operate for the purposes intended, the Federal Government would be entitled to recover one-half the then value of the center not to exceed the total amount paid to the State for the center.

The results which can be achieved with specialized facilities in returning as productive members of society disabled persons who for years have been confined to their beds or homes have been strikingly demonstrated by the Army Air Forces, the Veterans' Administration, the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center of Virginia, the Baruch Committee on Physical Medicine, and our cooperative efforts with the United Mine Workers Welfare and Retirement Fund and the accomplishments of several private centers under the direction of such eminent authorities as Dr. Howard Rusk, Dr. Henry Kessler, Col. John Smith, Miss Bell Greve, and others.

A grant-in-aid approach would offer sufficient incentive to stimulate the establishment of necessary centers and facilities and at the same time would place the operation of such facilities under the direct adminstration of the State or local communities where we feel it rightfully belongs.

As early as 1947, the subcommittee on ophthalmology, Committee on Medical Research of the National Research Council, recommended that

a center for the training of the blind similar to that formerly operated by the Army at Old Farm Convalescent Hospital at Avon, Conn., be permanently established by the Federal Security Agency * * * to render more than domiciliary care and rehabilitation training * * to promote research and related activities that will ultimately contribute to the physical well-being of the blind and their adaptation to useful employment.

*

The above subcommittee reaffirmed its recommendations in November 1948. Plans for establishing and operating such a center have been developed by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation after consultation with representatives of the American Foundation for the Blind, American Association of Workers for the Blind, National Council of Executives of State Agencies for the Blind, and the States' Vocational Rehabilitation Council.

Under the provisions of section 6 of H. R. 5577 the Federal Security Administrator is authorized to: establish, operate, and maintain national research centers for developing, improving, and testing the effectiveness of techniques, methods, and devices utilized in the vocational rehabilitation of blind and other severly disabled individuals and their adjustment to gainful employment and to society; provide, in accordance with regulations prescribed by him, to blind and other severly disabled individuals admitted to such facility, vocational_rehabilitation and other services incidental to the activity conducted at such facility; and disseminate the results of the activities to appropriate public or private agencies or individuals, and provide for the training and instruction of State and Federal employees in the methods, techniques, and use or application of devices developed, improved, or tested at such facility.

In addition to the program and services thus far discussed, H. R. 5577 provides in section 7, certain minor changes in the Vocational Rehabilitation Act which we feel will make its operation more effective The first of these changes is to make possible the extension of the provisions of the act of the Virgin Islands.

The second change is to remove the condition of financial need. for the provision of training materials. This is believed to be desirable since training of rehabilitation clients is not conditioned upon economic need and training materials are necessary adjuncts of training.

A third change concerns the provision of placement equipment to clients of the State rehabilitation agencies. The language used in this. connection in the Vocational Rehabilitation Act is "customary occu-pational tools and equipment." Because of the legal implications of these words it is impossible to meet the placement needs of many disabled persons. Especially is this true of persons who are to be placed in agricultural pursuits. In lieu of the present language this section. defines placement equipment as:

tools, equipment, initial stocks and supplies, including livestock, and capital advances (which advances shall not exceed in any one individual case such sum as the Federal Security Administrator may by regulation establish) necessary to enable such disabled individuals to enter upon their occupational objective. The fourth change authorizes the Federal Security Administrator to conduct demonstrations. The purpose of these demonstrations

would be to stimulate programs for such severely disabled groups as the epileptics and paraplegics. This also authorizes the vocational rehabilitation program to participate with other programs, such as the Public Health Service, in the demonstration projects for persons suffering with heart disease or with mental illness.

The fifth change would restore a provision which expired July 1, 1945, authorizing the Federal Security Administrator to establish training courses for individuals in vocational rehabilitation. As reported by the Committee on Labor, Subcommittee on Aid to the Physically Handicapped:

* * *

In almost every area of services to the physically handicapped, a shortage of adequately trained personnel has been reported. With respect to persons needed in rehabilitation services, it will be necessary to amend the law, authorizing the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation to engage in training activities. The soundness of our public investment in the welfare of the handicapped from both an economic and humanitarian standpoint was forcefully stated in the reports of the Seventy-eighth Congress:

The very fact that a person who is normally a breadwinner is disabled often raises a relief problem as to him and his dependents. From the viewpoint of both Federal and State treasuries, and of the disabled persons themselves, experience has demonstrated that the best as well as the most economical approach for meeting the situation is an appropriate program of vocational rehabilitation. Where a disabled person may be made fit for employment, through rehabilitation, and become a tax producer rather than a tax consumer, it would seem poor economy to deny him these necessary services. This is the dollar-and-cents justification of the program.

In conclusion, I should merely like to point out that the expansion of the existing vocational rehabilitation program by the enactment of H. R. 5577 would permit the achievement of a comprehensive program of services necessary to provide economic security to our disabled men and women and to enable them to contribute to the economic and social life of the Nation to the maximum extent possible. Mr. BAILEY. I would like to ask one or two rather pointed questions as to your extended and informative explanation of the contents of H. R. 5577.

May I ask what is the present extent of the appropriations for this kind of work? What kind of appropriations are you working under at the present time?

Mr. BELSLEY. At the present time, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation has an appropriation for grants-in-aid of $20,500,000. Mr. BAILEY. Under this proposed advanced program could give us an estimate of approximately what these extended services would cost?

you

Mr. DABELSTEIN. Congressman, at the present time practically all the State legislatures have adjourned. About one-third will convene in 1950 and all will have met in 1951, so the estimates that I am going to give take that into consideration. We estimate that for 1950 $3,325,488 of Federal grants will be involved. The major item is the National Research and Adjustment Center for the Blind.

In 1951 the Federal grants will be $4,958,976, and $8,906,000 for the fiscal year 1952.

Mr. BAILEY. Would that be in addition to the $20,000,000 plus already available?

Mr. DABELSTEIN. Yes.

Mr. BAILEY. Your expanded program would entail these additional expenditures?

Mr. DABELSTEIN. These costs are just for the additional services authorized in H. R. 5577.

Mr. BAILEY. The bill just authorizes the appropriation?

Mr. BELSLEY. Just authorizes, and the actual amount is dependent upon the Congress thereafter.

Mr. WIER. This is a rather rosy picture that you are presenting here in this language. You lay a lot of stress in this presentation on the blind. That is what I am going to ask you about, the blind problem. I have some knowledge of it in my community, and what happens in my community could be duplicated in every other major city in the United States.

Do you have figures on the number of blind in the different cities? Mr. BELSLEY. Not by cities.

Mr. DABELSTEIN. There are no accurate figures on the total number of blind in the United States, or in which localities they are located. Mr. WIER. In my State you do not know how many blind there are? Mr. DABELSTEIN. I can give you the gross estimate for the country as a whole. There are at least 230,000 blind people. About 98,000 are men and women between the ages of 60 and 65. Fifty-five percent of those are men and about 45 percent are women. If I remember correctly, it varies from State to State on the basis of 1.08 to 3.29 per 1,000 of population

Mr. WIER. Never mind.

Mr. DABELSTEIN. We have the figures for Minnesota, if you would like to have them.

Mr. WIER. I just wondered if you had any figures on what each State has in the way of the blind. How many are there in Minnesota? Mr. DABELSTEIN. I would have to look at the figures. I do not have them with me. Estimates indicate about 3,965.

Mr. WIER. Follow me with this picture and see if this solves the problem or not, and if it does, it is going to cost you some dough.

I will give you the history of the blind problem in Minneapolis and it can be duplicated in 500 other cities that I know of.

Up until about 20 years ago the blind of our city—and I am now going back before social security-all of the blind were on poor relief. The blind of our city totaled at that time about 200, and they were in need; in need of help. A number of the blind used the streets in one way or another to try to eke out an existence. No municipality is proud of that kind of condition, so the moment we could do it, a movement was started to try to rehabilitate the blind who were so badly in need and put them into a field where they could be partly self-sustaining. Appeals were made for subscriptions to start a factory.

The idea behind that was sponsored by one of our fine citizens, a lady, who made an endowment for the erection of the factory, but to take care of the continuous cost and the maintenance, and so they started a broom factory, following that with the manufacture of some other articles like doormats, and so forth.

That factory over the last 20 years has had an average employment of about 40 to 50 blind. They have been trained there, but the cost and maintenance of that operation, just for the 40 or 50-and that