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The need for securing a real basis for social case treatment of employment problems of blind men by coordinating the various lines of effort in adult work through some such central agency as state commissions or federal boards has been forcibly illustrated in the plans worked out for disabled soldiers in various countries since the war. The program includes orderly use of curative occupations, vocational reeducation if necessary, and placement in accordance with ability, whether in competitive industry, home occupation, or subsidized shop. Such an orderly technique presupposes coordination of forces in the industrial service of the blind, not on a basis of philanthropy, but of public educational and vocational service.

It must never be imagined that the principle of "finding the man behind the handicap" will minimize the amount or expense of work to be done. It is only a means of finding out what are a person's potentialities for the sake of reasonable economy, efficiency and, most important of all, for the happiness of the handicapped. This plan for individualizing may, on the one hand, be regarded as a protest against the unnecessary and harmful expedient of "trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." A thinker with a scientific mind points out that this attempt, too common among social workers in what are still pioneer days, not only taxes the worker and defeats its own purpose, but too often destroys the possibility of a perfectly good pig-skin purse. It may, on the other hand, be regarded as a protest against the waste and unhappiness resulting from misuse of fine minds and natures in inappropriate work. This is felt most keenly in observing the lives of well-trained, intellectual blind people, for whose good energies society with its prejudices furnishes no outlet in effective work.

Individualization of the handicapped involves continuous recognition of the difference between those who are and those who are not capable of industrial aid. It involves distinctions among the forms of industrial aid, but requires always the same underlying principle. Society says to the handicapped man, "You keep up your end in proportion as you can, -- we will keep up ours in proportion as is necessary, in order that you may make the contribution that is in you, be it little or much." This is the "something for something proposition" which must lie behind every form of industrial aid for the blind. To carry it out we need (1) to work out an orderly technique of social case work that is as acceptable and understandable to a handicapped man as to the sighted worker with the blind; (2) to provide by way of background a campaign of education reaching family, neighbors and employers in every community to which disabled men return, whether they are the victims of disease, industrial accident or war.

The difficulties of finding the man behind the handicap are many and various. It may be that he can be discovered early by some very simple touch. On the other hand it may take years to find the man behind the handicap, and then his contribution may be so slight that the subsidized shop may be obliged to meet him not only half-way, but more, if he is to "do his bit."

The fact that a physically handicapped man finds himself in the almshouse is no proof that he lacks skill and character. But it is well to try by actual test whether he has skill with his hands, as well as to make sure whether he has the force of character to stand up in the community. Raising of false hopes is one of the unkindnesses to be guarded against in all work with the handicapped. The temptation is great. For the almshouse population, the visiting home teacher who by actual try-out can test the mind and skill of hand of the individual, and form a just estimate of his character, is an essential part of a safeguarding plan. Through such a worker we make occupation therapy and pre-vocational testing a reality in work with adults. Massachusetts has been especially fortunate in her state home teachers (blind), and one among them has an especial gift for finding the good human qualities that lie behind the handicap of blindness, as well as the ability to read with the fingers and learn simple manual processes such as netting and basketry. The following is her own account of such an instance:

Another man, formerly at the State Farm, was there because while trying to earn a living at canvassing, after losing his sight, he had been robbed of his wares by a dishonest guide. He placed himself in the poorhouse, and had been transferred to the State Farm, where I found him. In the four months of instruction he learned to read and write Braille, to cane-seat and pith-seat chairs, and make rake knit bags. He was sent to a workshop in April to learn broom making, and before his vacation in August, had also learned to weave coarse rugs. He is now completing his apprenticeship, and will shortly find a place among the blind wage-earners. He has made since July first about fifty rake net bags and sold them, receiving between forty and fifty dollars for his work. (1)