ABSTRACT
One reason for the paradox is that an agency's practices reflect not only the beliefs and values of its staff but its responses to certain economic, manpower, and community pressures as well. Three such pressures are especially important in this regard: relationships between blindness organizations and the communities that support them; relationships among blindness organizations situated in the same communities; and certain features of the recruitment, selection, and retention of personnel for agencies for the blind. Relationships between blindness agencies and the community are extremely superficial. Such organizations are socially isolated even though most of them are situated in the heart of a busy urban area. Most blindness organizations receive liberal financial support from the community. An accommodative approach to rehabilitation can be viewed as one type of response to the pressures arising from community reactions to blindness.
