Abstract
A STUDY of the vocational rehabilitation of the physically disabled has been prepared for the Advisory Committee on Education by Lloyd E. Blanch (U.S. Government Printing Office, Staff Study No. 9). The study reviews the development, status and problems of the rehabilitation service inaugurated in July 1920 by the Federal Government, under which up to June 30, 1937, 98,690 persons had been rehabilitated. In the year ended June 30/1937, vocational rehabilitation was completed for 8,691 men and 2,400 women, about 60 per cent of whom received some training. Maintenance was provided or secured for 948 while they were undergoing rehabilitation. Of those rehabilitated, 64 per cent were less than thirty-one years of age and only 8 per cent were more than fifty. Most of those rehabilitated (61 per cent) were without dependants, but 26 per cent had two or more dependants. Orthopaedic disabilities handicapped 75 per cent of those rehabilitated. The study suggests that 150,000 persons each year acquire permanent disabilities sufficiently serious to prevent them from returning to work without assistance. About 50,000 of these can be employed normally after rehabilitation; 75,000 can be employed only in sheltered workshop conditions, while the remaining 25,000 can only be employed, if at all, in their homes. Accordingly the present programme only rehabilitates about 20 per cent of the physically disabled who need such assistance. The study concludes that a permanent Federal programme is required and insists on the importance of Federal administration and of the co-ordination of Federal services which affect vocational rehabilitation. Reference is also made to special services for the blind and to the need for an extended programme, including the provision of living expenses during rehabilitation.
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Vocational Rehabilitation of the Physically Disabled. Nature 143, 371 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143371a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143371a0