Helen Keller Services for the Blind

Helen Keller Services for the Blind is an American organization that helps the blind develop independence.

Since 1893, Helen Keller Services for the Blind's mission has been to help individuals of all ages who are blind or visually impaired, and who may have additional disabilities, develop independence. Headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, the agency has additional rehabilitation sites in Hempstead and Huntington, Long Island, and operates the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults in Sands Point, New York.

On November 2, 1883, 17-year-old Eben Porter Morford went to a local drug store in Brooklyn where he was shot. Total blindness resulted. In 1886 Morford gathered a small group of blind people together to try to help others like themselves. On October 1, 1893, the Industrial Home for Blind Men opened its doors. Morford was the superintendent and by 1894 seventeen blind men lived in the home.

On April 25, 1895, The Industrial Home for the Blind of the City of Brooklyn (IHB) was incorporated. Morford spent 30 years directing the Home. In 1906 he participated in a study on the needs of blind people in New York State. This helped inaugurate The New York State Commission for the Blind. In 1917 services for people who were deaf-blind were established. Also that year Morford employed a young Peter J. Salmon, who was legally blind. Morford died January 27, 1928. That year over 600 people who were blind or deaf-blind were served by IHB.

In 1943, on the 50th anniversary, Keller visited IHB.

During the 1950s, services were established in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. In 1952 IHB established a braille and large print library to make sure that textbooks were available for children who were blind and mainstreamed within their local schools. In 1953 a summer day camp was opened to encourage participation in sports, music and drama. In 1952, George Hellinger opened the first Low Vision Eye Service within a blindness agency. The purpose of this service is the optimization of remaining vision of legally blind individuals through the use of optical aids.

In 1967 IHB opened a pre-school for children.

During the 1960s, IHB initiated the federally funded Anne Sullivan Macy Service for people who were deaf-blind. Soon after, Peter Salmon, Louis Bettica and others advocated a national center to serve all Americans who were deaf-blind. In 1967 the Helen Keller National Center was established by a unanimous act of Congress, and IHB was chosen to operate the program, which provided comprehensive rehabilitation training for people with a severe dual sensory loss or impairment.

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