Services are helping children who are visually impaired to reach their highest potential and easing the anxiety of parents who know nothing about blindness. Vocational rehabilitation services, wherein consumers are responsible for setting their own goals, are helping overcome the effects of visual loss on employability. The number of blind people entering remunerative employment has increased steadily under the agency's results-oriented system. Itinerant independent living caseworkers, although inadequate in number to meet the need, are lowering the cost to the state and families of alternate and more expensive care by training people to care for themselves after losing vision. Ongoing legislative reforms, reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act, and state spending controls created a challenging environment for this plan.
Experience shows the necessity of close partnerships between consumers, advocates, and the agency.
Parents of children who are blind and people knowledgeable about blindness are calling for more intensive services and training for children that lead to independent living and employment. Adults who are blind are seeking training for jobs that pay more and provide more secure futures for themselves and their families. The agency's mission is fully compatible with and supportive of the mission of state government. Agency strategies contribute to the state's priority goals in Health and Human Services and General Government.