Perkins School for the Blind, in

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. Watertown ...

, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Perkins manufactures its own

Perkins Brailler The Perkins Brailler is a "braille typewriter" with a key corresponding to each of the six dots of the braille code, a space key, a backspace key, and a line space key. Like a manual typewriter, it has two side knobs to advance paper through t ...

, which is used to print embossed, tactile books for the blind; and the Perkins SMART Brailler, a

braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displ ...

teaching tool, at the Perkins Solutions division housed within the Watertown campus's former Howe Press.

History

The Howe Building Tower on Perkins School for the Blind's campus in Watertown, Mass

Founded in 1829, Perkins was the first school for the blind established in the United States. The school was originally named the New England Asylum for the Blind and was incorporated on March 2, 1829. The name was eventually changed to Perkins School For the Blind. John Dix Fisher first considered the idea of a school for blind children based upon his visits to Paris at the National Institute for the Blind and was inspired to create such a school in Boston, but it was founded by

Samuel Gridley Howe Samuel Gridley Howe (November 10, 1801 – January 9, 1876) was an American physician, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, and advocate of education for the blindness, blind. He organized and was the first director of the Perkins Sc ...

, who had also studied education for the blind in Europe. The school is named in honor of

Thomas Handasyd Perkins Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, also known as T. H. Perkins (December 15, 1764 – January 11, 1854), was an American merchant, slave trader, smuggler and philanthropist from a wealthy Boston Brahmin family. Starting with bequests from his grand ...

, one of the organization's incorporators. He was a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- m ...

shipping merchant who began losing his sight about the time the school was established. In 1833, the school outgrew its first location, the Pleasant Street house of the father of founder Howe. That year Perkins donated his Pearl Street mansion as the school's second home. In 1839, Perkins sold the mansion and donated the proceeds. This gift allowed the purchase of a more spacious building in

South Boston South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transforma ...

. In 1885, were purchased in the Hyde Square section of

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The comm ...

, a residential district of Boston, to build a kindergarten, with Isabel Greeley as its first matron. This property was home to both Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. The school moved to its present campus, in

, in the autumn of 1912.

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

visited Perkins in 1842 during a lecture tour of America and was amazed at the work Howe was doing with Laura Bridgman, a deaf-blind girl who had come to the school in 1837 from New Hampshire. He wrote about his visit in his book, ''

American Notes ''American Notes for General Circulation'' is a travelogue by Charles Dickens detailing his trip to North America from January to June 1842. While there he acted as a critical observer of North American society, almost as if returning a status ...

''. In 1887, Perkins director Michael Anagnos sent graduate

Anne Sullivan Anne Sullivan Macy (born as Johanna Mansfield Sullivan; April 14, 1866 – October 20, 1936) was an American teacher best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller.Herrmann, Dorothy. ''Helen Keller: A Life'', Alfred ...

to teach Helen Keller at her family's home in Alabama. After working with her pupil at the Keller home, Sullivan returned to Perkins with Keller in 1888, and resided there intermittently until 1893. In 1931, Perkins created the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library (BTBL). In 1951, David Abraham successfully manufactured the first Perkins Brailler. By 1977, about 100,000 Perkins Braillers had been produced and distributed worldwide.

Perkins today

In the 21st century, Perkins has expanded its mission online to include resources for families with blind and visually impaired children, and teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs). Perkins has also worked with local partners in Asian countries to host an online community for educators, caregivers and families. In 2011, Perkins completed construction of the Grousbeck Center for Students and Technology on its 38-acre campus in Watertown. This facility houses accessible technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. The most recent project in Watertown for visually impaired persons is the "

Braille Trail A Braille trail is a walking path or hiking trail that is designed to be accessible by those who are visually impaired. In particular, trails are often delineated with ropes or other physical barriers, and signage and other markers have audio or a ...

", which was completed in July 2016. It is part of the Watertown Riverfront Park.

Perkins International

Perkins partners with local groups in 67 countries: schools, universities, NGOs, nonprofits, government agencies, and parent networks—to educate and empower people who are blind, deaf/blind or visually impaired, and who may have additional disabilities. The organization disseminates resources, such as Perkins Braillers, funding, and expertise on the ground in these countries. One such example of this work in the African countries of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya is Perkins' role in the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust, Inc. (KBT). Special educators from other countries are also invited to the Watertown campus every year, for an intensive study of blindness and multiple-disability education. They can take back current information to their respective regions.

Perkins Solutions

Perkins Solutions concentrates on a broad array of assistive technology and accessibility assessment, training, and consulting. The range of Perkins Braillers ships to 175 countries and includes the Classic Brailler, the Next Generation Brailler and the Smart Brailler launched in 2012 with text-to-speech output, visual display, and applications for teaching braille. This subsidiary of Perkins also partners with associations for the blind and partially sighted, education ministers and resellers around the globe in an effort to provide accessible equipment—including Perkins Braillers, brailler repair and

assistive technology Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly. Disabled people often have difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, or even wi ...

—to all who need it.

#BlindNewWorld

On May 5, 2016, Perkins launched BlindNewWorld, a social change campaign aimed at helping the sighted population to be more inclusive of people who are blind and to make the world more accessible to them.

National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program

On June 8, 2012, in conjunction with the

Helen Keller National Center The Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults (also known as the Helen Keller National Center or HKNC) is a foundation in the United States that provides services for individuals who, like Helen Keller, are both blind and de ...

(HKNC) and the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdi ...

(FCC), Perkins School for the Blind was selected to conduct nationwide outreach for the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP). Mandated by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) and established by the FCC, the NDBEDP will aid individuals with combined vision and hearing loss connect with family, friends and their community by distributing accessible communications technology. Perkins' and partners' outreach campaign to educate people on this program is called iCanConnect. It aims to inform the nearly one million people in the United States with some sort of combined hearing and vision loss on the types of equipment—e.g. screen-enlargement software, video phones and electronic refreshable braille displays—available to them free of charge.

Affiliations

Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library works in conjunction with the

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) is a free library program of braille and audio materials such as books and magazines circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States and American citizens living abroad by po ...

(NLS) at its Watertown chapter. Perkins has collaborated with the

Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) is a Texas special public school, in the continuum of statewide placements for students who have a visual impairment. It is considered a statewide resource to parents of these children ...

on a Web resource called PathsToLiteracy.org, an online hub for information related to literacy for students who are blind or visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities or deafblindness. Perkins has collaborated with

Amy Bower Amy Bower is an American physical oceanographer. She is known for her research on ocean circulation and for being one of the few blind oceanographers. Career Bower is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Cape Cod, ...

, a blind oceanographer and senior scientist at the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

, to show students what it's like to be a blind scientist. The international nonprofit has also worked with the

American Foundation for the Blind The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is an American non-profit organization for people with vision loss. AFB's objectives include conducting research to advance change, promoting knowledge and understanding, and shaping policies and practic ...

to ensure that Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) be taught in mainstream schools. Perkins is a member of the Council of Schools for the Blind.

Notable alumni

* Joseph B. Smith, musician and the first blind graduate of

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. * Robert Smithdas, the first deafblind person to earn a master's degree. *

, teacher of Helen Keller. * Helen Keller, notable deafblind activist and public figure. * Laura Bridgman, the first known deafblind person to be formally educated. * Albert K. Gayzagian, the first former student and the first visually impaired person to be appointed to the Perkins Board of Trustees. * Tony DeBlois, musician and

autistic savant Savant syndrome () is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calcu ...

. * Tom Sullivan, singer and writer. * Don Deignan, historian and disability advocate. * Cailin Currie,

paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

. * Jean Sorel, polyglot educator, lawyer, Radio Haiti host, and the first blind graduate of the State University of Haiti.

References

External links

*
BlindNewWorld

The Manliest Man

Perkins Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins School For The Blind 1829 establishments in Massachusetts 19th century in Boston Buildings and structures in Watertown, Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1829 Schools for the blind in the United States Schools in Middlesex County, Massachusetts