Aging and Vision Advocates Unite to Move the Bar for Older Persons Who Are Visually Impaired: A Call to Action

Almost two decades ago, the following information on the development of a national agenda on vision and aging was published in the "From the Field" section of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB): ... the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the National Aging and Vision Network have launched the development of a national agenda on vision and aging. The concept of a national agenda began with a survey that AFB's National Aging Program team sent to National Aging and Vision Network members in December 1997.... [A]t the March 1998 Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute, aging work-group participants, comprised of professionals and consumers, worked on identifying critical issues for the agenda to address ("National Agenda on Vision and Aging," 1998, p. 850). The issues identified at the conference became a list of goals, which had the intended purpose of shaping public policies and attitudes in order to ensure the full participation in society of individuals aged 55 years and older. The goals of the agenda were: * develop a self-advocacy skills training curriculum for inclusion in vision rehabilitation programs serving older persons who are visually impaired; * increase public awareness about age-related vision loss and vision-related services; * carry out advocacy efforts to increase federal funding for the Title VII, Chapter 2 Program of the Rehabilitation Act (Independent Living Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind [OIB]); * increase the supply of qualified personnel providing vision rehabilitation services to older individuals who are visually impaired; * expand access to employment opportunities for older persons with visual impairments; and * promote the coordination of data collection and outcome measurement efforts, which support the targeted goals of increased consumer self-advocacy, greater public awareness of vision rehabilitation services, sufficient funding for services, increased supply of qualified personnel, and expanded access to information and community resources. OUTCOMES OF THE FIRST NATIONAL AGENDA ON VISION AND AGING By 2005, the National Aging and Vision Network (formed by AFB) accomplished two objectives from the third goal of the agenda on vision and aging (Orr, Scott, & Rogers, 2005): * achieve the $13 million threshold established by Congress in the Rehabilitation Act as the trigger level for Chapter 2 formula funding to ensure that each state receives a minimum level of funding; and * achieve a funding level of at least $26 million for the Title VII, Chapter 2 program, a funding level established by state agency directors as the base amount needed to establish a nationwide service delivery program. These achievements established a framework to fund a nationwide service delivery program, ensuring money for every state to provide OIB services. Although the Aging and Vision Network worked diligently toward its goal, since 2005, no united effort has been sustained. Thus, it is time to renew the call to action to meet the needs of millions of aging baby boomers who are losing vision at a time when national, state, and local resources are stretched and overwhelmed. With the exception of stimulus funding, the OIB program has received approximately the same amount of funding annually, and the numbers of individuals being served by this program appear to be declining. During fiscal year 2005, 63,766 individuals were served with a federal allocation of $33,227,040 (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). According to the Rehabilitation Services Administration's 2012 report, only 67,273 individuals nationwide benefited from independent living services provided through this program (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). The latest published reports (2013) indicate that 59,133 received services (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). …