                           FACT SHEET

               JOB TRAINING PROGRAM CONSOLIDATION:
             AT WHAT PRICE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND


BACKGROUND:  Legislation (including block grants) to consolidate
education, job training, and employment programs is being
considered by the 104th Congress.   Under the block grants most
of the federal funds would go directly to states for required
redistribution to local work force development areas.  Services
provided with the funds would come from one-stop offices which
would be responsible for meeting the education, training, and
employment needs of virtually anyone who is unemployed.

     Blind persons and others with physical or mental
disabilities would apply to receive services, including
rehabilitation, adjustment training, and other disability-related
services, through the one-stop offices.  If found eligible they
would receive assistance of an unspecified nature or extent. 
Also, the legislation does not specify any particular planning or
authorization mechanism to be used in assuring service delivery
or quality in individual cases.  In accessing services from the
one-stop offices, all applicants for service, regardless of
disability or the lack thereof, would compete for the time,
attention, knowledge, and funding available.

DESCRIPTION OF EXISTING LAW: Under existing law, Title I of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provides all states with a dedicated
block of federal funding for the sole purpose of assisting people
with disabilities to achieve individualized rehabilitation goals.

Title I is essentially the only source of funding for these
services.  Moreover, Title I is the principal resource for
funding of several activities, including establishment of vending
facilities operated by the blind in public buildings.  Unlike
some services to persons with disabilities, which may often be of
a medical nature, programs for the blind cannot avail themselves
of third-party reimbursement in most instances.  

PROPOSED CHANGES: With the consolidation of Title I into the
generic job training and employment service system, most if not
all of the dedicated resources now available under Title I would
be gone. The consolidation or block grant approaches are based on
the theory that virtually everyone who is unemployed for whatever
reason can be served best under one central authority.  According
to this view the administration and delivery of services to
persons with disabilities are essentially the same as those for
services to dislocated workers or unemployed welfare recipients. 
Both the dedicated funding and the resulting specialized services
would be diminished through consolidation.  It is a matter of
historical fact that state agency organization and service
delivery patterns tend to mirror the pattern of federal financial
assistance.  Moreover, the combination of programs will
inevitably favor the largest and best-understood needs to be met.

Unique services for persons with disabilities will suffer.

NEED FOR SPECIALIZED SERVICES TO THE BLIND:  Since the needs of a
person who is newly blinded or who has not received effective
rehabilitation services are drastically different from those of
the typical unemployed worker, the consolidation plan will not
work.  For example, essential services like (1) travel training
in using the long white cane or the guide dog; (2) instruction in
adaptive methods of reading, writing, and information access like
Braille; (3) provision of assistive technology like synthetic
speech for devices for computers, screen enlargement programs,
Braille computer terminals, closed-circuit television or other
magnification devices, reading machines, or scanners; and (4)
training in alternative skills of daily living--all essential to
blind individuals seeking employment--are not available from, and
are completely unrelated to, generic job training and employment
programs.  Most telling, such programs are--and will be--
unequipped to offer skilled counseling in adjustment to blindness
essential to an individual's eventual success in seeking and
holding a job.  Effective rehabilitation counseling helps blind
and visually impaired persons overcome fears and develop
confidence in their newfound skills.  They learn to understand
employer attitudes about blindness and how to deal with them
effectively.

     The theory of including rehabilitation services to persons
with disabilities in one-stop generic service centers is
seriously flawed.  Blind persons seeking often time-consuming
training and adjustment-to-blindness assistance already typically
find themselves at the end of the line for service because they
cannot be quickly processed as successful closures in a
bureaucratic numbers game; the one-stop approach requiring them
to scramble with more easily trained unemployed will only serve
to exacerbate delays for the blind in obtaining services which
will be vastly diminished in utility.  The result will be
increased numbers of blind persons relying on government services
like Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental
Security Income, with increased--not decreased--cost to the
taxpayers.
  
ACTION REQUESTED:  The blind urge that changes in Title I of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 not be made at this time and that
vocational rehabilitation not be consolidated with the other
programs in the Work Force Development legislation.  We support
continued federal leadership in a partnership with the states for
targeted programs to assist persons with disabilities, including
specialized services for individuals who are blind or visually
impaired.

     Title I of the Rehabilitation Act, as currently structured,
provides an effective mechanism for full integration of blind and
visually impaired persons into the nation's workforce.  The
public and private programs funded under it possess the
knowledge, technical expertise, and financial resources which are
essential to make this integration possible.

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