ABSTRACT
Clients of agencies for the blind comprise only a small proportion of the total blindness population, and they are representative of only a highly selective segment of it. The services offered to blind people through the blindness system fall into five categories: support services; instrumental services; rehabilitation and vocational services; children's services; and vision-enhancement, prevention of blindness, and eye-treatment programs. The resources of the blindness system can be divided into three categories—manpower resources, financial resources, and resources in the form of an organizational delivery system for services. Numerous services are available for the child who is educable, but few for the multiply-handicapped child. There are many services for the blind person who is thought to be employable, but few for the one who is thought to be untrainable or for whom employment is an unrealistic goal. The classification of services to the blind is borrowed from a report on the blindness system by the Organization for Social and Technical Innovation.
