The Unseen Minority: A Social History of Blindness in the United States: 24. The Ever-Changing Children

Abstract: At the end of the 1940s an epidemic of retrolental fibroplasias (RLF), brought on by over-rich oxygen in incubators, produced a rapid growth in the numbers of children who were blind or visually impaired. This, in turn, led to a sharpened focus on the choice of residential or public schooling. The author explores the effects of RLF and other problems, including racial segregation and a 1960s rubella epidemic, on education of students who were blind or visually impaired. The special needs of mentally and multiply disabled children are also discussed.

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