The Blind Need Not Apply

by Ronald J Ferguson

Published 1 January 2007
This book has been a work in progress. In the spring of 2000 I started this project and began to collect data and conduct interviews. I copied every article I could find in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness and its predecessors Outlook for the Blind and New Outlook for the Blind. I was fortunate to locate Blindness the annual publication of the American Association of Workers for the Blind. One of the greatest finds was the library at the American Foundation for the Blind. The library contains dozens of volumes related to orientation and mobility. Within two years I had amassed a considerable collection of resources. I began working through the materials and along the way prepared some papers for various conferences. A dramatic increase in administrative responsibilities, as well as the tyranny of meeting grant deadlines, diverted me from giving concentrated effort to this book. All that changed as I reduced my workload in order to devote almost all my efforts over the past nine months to this project.


The goal of this manual is to enhance the capacity of all members of the educational context, whether student, parent, teacher, administrator, or consultant, to activate the benefits of infused technologies for all learners, including those who are blind or have low vision. To accomplish this purpose this manual provides background and practical information with respect to inquiry-based education, infused technologies, and blindness and visual impairment. You will discover vignettes of real-life blind learners, tips from a blind educator, key components of accessible technology- infused education including information on adaptive technologies for applications that have not yet been designed for all learners, and practical suggestions to make online courses and Web sites accessible. For those who wish to explore further, there are numerous recommendations for further reading, organized to guide the reader to specific content.