Norwich bulletin., 1920-07-30
STATE DOES GOOD WORK

IN HELPING THE BLIND
 The work of the year of the board of education of the blind was reviewed in the report of the secretary, Stetson K. Ryan, read at the annual meeting this week at the office of the governor at 2te capitol. The report said that a new and hopeful viewpoint has come in work for the blind It is as if the eyes of the seeing people had been opened and they had been permitted to survey more nearly as he is. The work of the one who is without eyesight. the board and growth of the work is shown in the following part of the report
 The board has had S4 blind people. 21 of whom were adults, who have received educational advantages from the state |, the past year. This is larger number than in any one previous year. The same was said !s last years report At the school for the blind the registra- tion reached 51, and at the department of trades IF. At the nursery at Farm ington there were six who were oll enough to be accepted as pupils by the state although more than dozen other children were cared for who were not chargeable to the state. Six pupils were entered at Perkins institution at Wa tertown, Mass. One pupil was a stu
 
 year, another was entered at a business school in Hartford, while third was given a course at a player action school | in New York. One pupil was taught ir his home.
 We believe that the work for the blind will call for a higher degree of special ization, as state boards and commis- sions come to study individual eases more carefully. The day when all the blind people must be chair caners mat tress makers or broom mal,s is pust The field of endeavor which the blind person may enter is being enIarged There is evidence of this in our work in Connecticut in the larger number of schools at which we have entered pupils The past year two of our pupils were given special training at business schools in the use of the dictaphone One was trained in Boston and the other at a business school in Hartford The former, young woman, was helped to secure a position as dictaphone opera or by this board with an insurance com pftIy.
 In opening employment in the fac , tories to the blind an advance has been made the past year. There is now hardly a manufacturing city in eastern Connecticut in which one or more fac tories are not employing some blind CT part ally blind persons. The secretary has found large calls being made upon his time in an endeavor to secure this work for the blind in various parts of the state. It is T work. however, that has had it's compensation. Not only have the blind operators been 1ble to demonstrate their ability to do as good work as those with sight but the ciran- tity, while not as great in many cases, has leen satisfactory to the employer Our records show that there ale now more than 25 factories in the state where the blind are employed. Some of them have two, and even three. bird employees, and three factory officials have talked with the secretary about the feasibility of starting a department in their factory where only the blind would be employed
 Early in the calendar year liquor which had been manufactured from wood alcohol, was sent into this state Some deaths resulted and some were