Celebrating 100 Years of Knowledge: A Review and Future Perspective:

Today, with new information continuously being added to the knowledge base, and with research and practice redefining previous contributions to the literature of the field of visual impairment and blindness, we professionals in the field enjoy a well-developed, yet still evolving, dynamic body of knowledge. To fully appreciate the value of the currently available literature of our field, and to anticipate its future richness, one must go back to its origins. I was afforded such an opportunity in preparation for this year's celebration of the 100th volume year of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB; 1977-present) and its predecessors, Outlook for the Blind (1907-1942), Outlook for the Blind and The Teachers Forum (1943-1951), and New Outlook for the Blind (1951-1976). As I began exploring each of the 99 volumes that comprise the archives of the journal housed in the M. C. Migel Library at the American Foundation for the Blind, I was immediately awestruck by the fact that that each issue was a virtual time capsule. According to Webster's Dictionary, a time capsule is defined as "a container holding historical records or objects representative of current culture that is deposited for preservation until discovery by some future age." Time capsules are intriguing because they provide a bridge between past and present cultures. Furthermore, if the past serves as a prologue to what lies ahead, the contents of the journal--both past and present--hold further value because they can be used as a window to the future. Actively anticipating our future while also considering our past is an exercise that this essay asserts is both possible and beneficial. Typically, when a 100-year-old time capsule is opened, "new" discoveries are not expected. However, as I turned the pages of the journal's 100-year catalog, I discovered within the "old" literature--admittedly read with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight--fresh insights and renewed perspectives. These findings allowed me, a grey-haired professional, to better understand and appreciate the art and science of our profession as it has evolved, and as the journal has so steadily chronicled. CRITICAL ISSUES THEN AND NOW Our literary predecessors accurately identified critical issues as evidenced in the very first issue of the journal, in which articles were published on employment, literacy, public attitudes, social and school integration, and prevention of blindness--the same targets that continue to occupy our attention today. It is remarkable that a century ago our professional ancestors so accurately identified these issues and had such keen insight on their importance. The popular buzzword transition, which denotes bridging the services necessary when one goes from "learning to earning" (a phrase borrowed from 1907), was not recently coined--its literary date of birth was 100 years earlier than I expected. The following quotations demonstrate both the extent to which linguistic expression has changed over the course of the century and how societal attitudes have progressed regarding many issues of importance to the field of visual impairment and blindness. On integration, Helen Keller wrote: We do not believe that the blind should be segregated from the seeing, gathered together in a sort of Zion City.... America is a democracy, a multi-monarchy, and the city of the blind is everywhere. Each community should take care of its own blind, provide employment for them, and enable them to work side by side with the seeing. (Keller, 1907; pp. 11-12) Finally, on individualization, George Oliphant, head of the Georgia School for the Blind, wrote: The factors which should determine what every child, and therefore every blind child, should study may be determined by: 1) Individual characteristics; 2) Individual life interests; 3) Individual needs. …