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by the judgment and, often, the mood of those involved in his rehabilitation and, indeed, of all of those involved in his social and educational

endeavors. Therefore, the opportunity for some elective and safe solitude can have important therapeutic value for the deaf-blind individual engaged in a full-time program of rehabilitation.

(2) A training and recreation complex consisting of (a) an obstacle course with virtually every kind of terrain and obstacle that a deaf-blind person is likely to encounter in traveling in his home community and elsewhere, (b) a jogging path affording an opportunity for safe exercise, and (c) a skating rink, for both roller-skating and ice-skating, that affords the kind of opportunity for the release of tensions through safe, fast, and unhampered movement that is rarely available to deaf-blind persons. (3) A vocational training building that includes: (a) a small laundry to serve the National Center and to provide training in some jobs in which several deaf-blind persons have been successfully placed, and, possibly, full-time employment for a deaf-blind person; (b) space suitable for housing a chick incubator (we believe that the hatching of eggs and the sale of day old chicks may hold employment opportunities for selected deaf-blind persons) and for providing training in a variety of other activities with employment and/or recreational possibilities, such as braille book collating and binding, chair reseating, ham radio operation, etc.; (c) a greenhouse to serve the National Center and to provide training in the growing of herbs and other salable plants; (d) a garage for servicing the vehicles of the National Center, for familiarizing trainees

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with the construction of automobiles and other vehicles, and for providing training for selected trainees in charging tires, relining brakes, repairing bicycles and performing other vehicle maintenance services

might be usefully employed in meeting family needs or in working for compensation in special situations; and (e) a small dog kennel for the housing of dogs that might be trained to respond to hand signals and to serve as pets for deaf-blind persons who desire and who can accommodate them. Such dogs, we believe, could be trained, too, to fetch dropped objects,

let their masters know when callers are at their doors and to meet other (These dogs are not to be confused with

needs of deaf-blind persons. guide dogs.)

(4) A "floating" floor in a sound isolated room, using transducers and amplifiers in transmitting exaggerated vibration from either live or recorded music, to enable trainees to perceive and appreciate musical rhythm. It has been demonstrated that such perception can enable many deaf-blind persons to enjoy social dancing and we believe that it may also be used to advantage in speech therapy, in reducing fatigue in the performance of repetitive work and in other areas of rehabilitation.

(5) Most of the floor coverings in both the residence and the training buildings will be either vinyl tile or carpeting (on cement, as the buildings will be steel and masonry construction); but the social room, the trainees' sitting rooms, and a number of the classrooms will be hardwood on "sleepers" supported on lowered cement slabs. This will make the social room suitable for social dancing and should enable

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trainees, without any usable sight or hearing, in any of the rooms with wooden floors to be aware of others entering or moving about the rooms through sensing the vibration created by their footsteps.

(6) Glare-proof, shadow-free high level illumination to provide safe and optimum seeability for trainees with residual vision (IHB pioneered, in 1946, in the use of the combination of lighting and color for the use of blind and deaf-blind persons who have some remaining sight.)

(7) A radio system to transmit vibratory signals for use as a fire alarm, for calling individual trainees, and for other purposes for which further development is required such as alerting trainees to the open

ing of the doors to their bedrooms so that they might be afforded the same degree of privacy as others are commonly able to enjoy.

These and many other special features in the plans and specifications for the permanent facilities of the National Center, we believe, will make the Center a model plant, the first of its kind in the world, for the rehabilitation of deaf-blind persons and for the developing and testing

of new features of both services and facilities to meet present and future

needs.

THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF OPERATION OF THE NATIONAL CENTER IN TEMPORARY HEADQUARTERS

Going back to the original concept of the legislation which resulted in the creation of the National Center, we believe, in retrospect, that it was very provident that we, with the agreement of the administration,

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did not seek to get into construction immediately after the inauguration

of the program.

Instead, it was decided that we would have a period of opportunity to review the national needs of deaf-blind persons more precisely and to build on the nucleus of staff that we had when the program was started. We have reviewed and revised the concept of the Center as the years have gone by and have developed staff to the extent that it was possible in the temporary Center.

THE URGENT NEED FOR FUNDING IN ORDER TO PROCEED WITH CONSTRUCTION OF THE CENTER

Since we can provide for only about 18 trainees at any one time at the temporary Center, and since we have a backlog of applicants for the National Center, some of whom will have to wait a year to 18 months for admission to the Center, it becomes urgent at this time that we, without undue delay, proceed with the construction of the permanent Center. We will be able to provide services for 50 trainees at any given time at the National Center headquarters and also provide for serving several hundred additional deaf-blind persons throughout the nation annually, using the headquarters facilities of the National Center for the most severely handicapped among the deaf-blind, who will need extended rehabilitative and other services, and the regional offices as outposts for case finding and providing such services as can be accomplished in the areas with the cooperation of State and voluntary agencies. Specialized personnel from the National Center will be made available to the localities to provide consultative and other services, such as basic communication needs, development of readiness for the deaf-blind person to come

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to the National Center, resettlement of the deaf-blind person in his

home community, and job placement.

What we need now is the necessary funding, as recommended above, to go forward as speedily as possible with the construction of the Center, as delay will be costly and would be disastrous in terms of provision of services for deaf-blind persons throughout the nation. We know that we have the overwhelming support of agencies for and of the blind, as well as the deaf and other handicapped persons who have been made aware of the needs of deaf-blind persons during these years and who are desirous of availing themselves of the services of the National Center for deaf-blind persons within their specialized areas of concern.

As we write, we are mindful of the fact that the National Center was the dream of two great ladies, Mary E. Switzer and Helen Keller. Mary Switzer was really the architect of the legislation, and in her usual dynamic way gave the leadership, on behalf of the Social and Rehabilitation Service, which resulted in the inauguration of the National Center. Helen Keller, in her great love and wisdom, had the idea of the National Center for many years. This was focused most succinctly in her Last Will and Testament, in which she praised the work of The Industrial Home for the Blind in behalf of deaf-blind

persons and, in effect, passed the torch on to IHB to bring her dream

into fruition.