logo shows State of California with an eye in the middle

B.A.R.C.

Blindness Alliance Contacts: Cathy Skivers (510) 537-7877

For Rehabilitation Change Jim Willows (925) 846-6086





WHY A CALIFORNIA COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND?



THE MAIN PURPOSE of California's Department of Rehabilitation is to prepare and place disabled clients in meaningful jobs.



Though the Department has existed for a half-century, the fact is that the unemployment rate among working-age blind people is now a staggering 70 percent - the highest of any identifiable racial or geographic group in California. And the unemployment of blind Californians yearly costs government well in excess of $1 billion in cash outlays, Medi-Cal, Section 8 housing and other forms of assistance.



To combat this problem, the state's Department of Rehabilitation spends about $25 million for a collection of blind services lumped within the all-disability department. Unfortunately, over the past five years the Department managed to place only about 300 people each year in competitive employment. That's a cost of $85,000 per job. Just what are California taxpayers getting for their money?



Increasingly the investment has not been spent on a focus of meaningful employment, and this poor outcome is particularly documented in the low placement rates of blind clients. Because Rehab offices must become jacks of all disabilities, they have invariably turned out to be masters of none. Small wonder that the average Rehab counselor for the blind placed just four clients in employment last year - ranking California's Department of Rehabilitation dead last among 48 states studied in percentage of clients served.



666 YEARS TO WAIT FOR WORK?



Since this structure has resulted in finding so few jobs for blind Californians, at the current snail's pace - and even if no more Californians became blind -- it would take an absurd 666 years for Rehab to place existing working-age blind Californians in jobs.



'ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL' ISN'T WORKING



The result of California's decades-long experiment in lumping blind clients with all other disabilities is disappointing. The Department's own statistics reveal that:



· California Rehab lags far behind the national average in finding blind clients jobs in competitive employment. Last year, only 15.3 percent of California's blind clients with so-called 'successful' closures found such jobs compared with a national average of 38.2 percent.



· California closed an anomalous 83.8 percent of blind clients as 'homemakers' last year, a work-unfriendly total almost double the national homemaker closure average of 44.5 percent..



· Only one of eight placements of blind clients resulted in middle-class jobs earning at least $30,000.



· After spending $85,000 per placed employee, the average weekly starting pay is now only $353..



· More than one-third of the "successful" clients earned no more than a poverty wage rate of $7.50 per hour, helping to explain why, after the state's investment in training and equipment many Rehab clients eventually return to SSI, doing no work at all.



WHY A SEPARATE COMMISSION IS KEY



Congress long recognized that the unique training necessary for blind people can best be accomplished by establishing separate Commissions for the Blind. Of 50 states, 26 have already chosen to switch to the more-efficient Commission. Recent nationwide studies of 35,000 clients have shown compelling evidence that these Commissions outside the Rehab bureaucracy simply produce far better results, to wit:



· The average wage earned by clients in states with separate commissions is significantly higher than in states with umbrella Departments covering all disabilities.



· Commissions might be slightly more costly per client, but the vastly-higher number and quality of placements creates more taxpayers and lowers welfare costs in the Commission States.



SEPARATE COMMISSIONS ACHIEVE SUPERIOR RESULTS FOR LOGICAL REASONS



We believe separate Commissions for the blind have a track record of success for the following reasons:



· Separate Commissions tend to be staffed with people who have specific knowledge about blindness and thus are better prepared to guide the client in productive directions



· Separate Commissions often have a higher percentage of blind employees, who may be better able to mentor job-seeking peers.



· Separate Commissions have more specific acquaintance with the capabilities and performance of blind employees and may better translate this information into a professional culture with positive, self-fulfilling beliefs in the abilities of blind people.



· Separate Commissions present the blind client with far fewer layers of generalist bureaucracy, often saving money by speeding training and equipment purchase.



· Separate Commissions employ staffs familiar with the specialized technologies and tools that blind workers need to do their jobs. They don't waste time educating generalist counselors with one-time-only solutions.



· Separate commissions are easily-understood organizations, and are therefore more likely to engage in employment partnerships with industries and corporations.



· Separate Commissions are often far more accessible to input from blind consumer groups, making it possible to be more flexible, creative and responsive to the needs of the community.



CALIFORNIA'S ENTIRE BLINDNESS FIELD SUPPORTS A COMMISSION



The Blind Alliance for Rehabilitation Change (BARC) represents nearly every agency and organization across California's blindness field. Together we annually spend more private dollars to train California's blind citizens than does the entire Department of Rehabilitation. In a historic alliance, we've come together to seek creation of the only structural solution significant enough to improve the rate of blind unemployment -- a California Commission for the Blind. Rev. 1/21/00



CALIFORNIA'S ENTIRE BLINDNESS FIELD SUPPORTS A COMMISSION



The Blind Alliance for Rehabilitation Change (BARC) represents nearly every agency and organization across California's blindness field. Together we annually spend more private dollars to train California's blind citizens than does the entire Department of Rehabilitation. In a historic alliance, we've come together to seek creation of, the only structural solution significant enough to improve the rate of blind unemployment -- a California Commission for the Blind.



Here, for the first time in years, we unanimously put our organizations on record to demand prompt action to establish a separate Commission.



California Council of the Blind

National Federation of the Blind of California



List of organizations supporting a rehabilitation commission



American Foundation for the Blind - West (San Francisco)

Braille Institute (Los Angeles)

Center for Partially Sighted (Los Angeles)

Foundation for the Junior Blind (Los Angeles)

Lions Blind Center (Oakland)

Living Skills Center (San Pablo)

Peninsula Center for the Blind (Palo Alto)

Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind (San Francisco)

San Diego Center for the Blind (San Diego)

Sensory Access Foundation (Palo Alto)

Society for the Blind (Sacramento)



For more information contact:



Cathy Skivers, President, California Council of the Blind

1510 "J" Street
Suite 125
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 441-2100



Jim Willows, President

National Federation of the Blind of California

3934 Kern Court

Pleasanton CA 94588

925-846-6086

Rev. 1/21/00