Education
Education Services for Blind & Visually Impaired Students
This includes instructional and therapeutic services for K-12 students who are blind and visually impaired.
Training for Vision Professionals & Para-Professionals
This includes university and other training programs for the teachers, rehabilitation specialists, orientation and mobility trainers, and other professionals and aides who serve blind and visually impaired people.
Courtesy of National Braille Press
Brother James Kearney Scholarship Program
This provides last-dollar-of-need scholarships to U.S. residents who are legally blind, financially needy, and studying at any of 12 partnering private colleges and universities in New York State, Northeastern New Jersey and Southwestern Connecticut.
For more information, please visit the Scholarships.
Case Study Highlights
Courtesy of Sense Internacional Perú
Sense Internacional Perú
In January 2021, the Fund approved a two-year grant of $69,566 to Sense Internacional Peru (SIP) to work in partnership with Peru’s Ministry of Education to improve the quality of inclusive education for the nation’s children with deafblindness. SIP was to work on a number of fronts to promote the education of children who are deafblind, including identifying and assessing deafblind students, training teachers, providing family support and enhancing awareness of the right to quality inclusive education.
Courtesy of Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins School for the Blind
In 2016, the Fund approved a three-year grant of $330,062 to Perkins School for the Blind, the oldest school in the nation for children who are blind and multiply disabled, for two purposes: (1) building the capacity of Perkins’ Resource Center in Cordoba, Argentina, to strengthen the practice of K-12 teachers and schools that serve children who are blind and multiply disabled in targeted Spanish-speaking South American countries, and (2) helping to stabilize and strengthen the financial management of three model schools for such children in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Lima, Peru.
Courtesy of Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School
Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School
In 2019, the Fund approved a nine-month grant of $26,000 to the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg (FMDG) Music School, a community music school dedicated to providing adaptive music instruction and performance opportunities to NYC area residents with vision loss. The purpose of the grant was to support the School’s 2019 sustainability planning, fundraising, and associated activities to preserve the School’s existence during its transition.
Courtesy City Access New York
City Access New York
In 2014, the Fund approved a three-year grant of $180,000 to City Access New York (CANY). The grant served to underwrite vocational education, career exploration, and orientation and mobility training for 12 NYC secondary school and college students who are blind and visually impaired through participation in at least 30 one-semester paid internships at any of 20-25 partner museums and cultural institutions in NYC.