Accession Number: 2016.17.6
Scope & Content: Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind (AEB) manuals and other O&M material collected by Oliver Burke during his career at AEB. Includes AEB manuals for training, 1956; organization and job descriptions, 1971; and travel training, 1959 (the latter by Burke and other AEB staff); and the AEB 1968 final report for the "Taxpayer Assistor Demonstration Training" research project. Other items include an undated "Aid to the Blind" leaflet of the Arkansas Department of Public Welfare, Little Rock; a 1947 Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind Training Course Outline; and an undated Holly Hill Diagnostic and Pre-Vocational Training Center document. There are also some presentation papers; the first issue (December 1952) of the then-untitled newsletter of the Committee on Rehabilitation Centers; and a mimeograph of a brief agency report/recommendation.
Creator: Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind
Interview Date: / /
Collection: AER O&M Division C. Warren Bledsoe Archives
Credit Line: Gift of William Jacobson, 2016.17
Administrative History: In March 1947, the Pre-Vocational Adjustment Center for the Adult Blind opened in Little Rock, Arkansas. Sponsored by the Lions Clubs and operated by the Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind, it was the first civilian rehabilitation center of its kind in the United States to open under non-governmental auspices. The name changed in 1951 to Southwest Rehabilitation Center for the Blind, and by the early 1960s, was called the Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind Rehabilitation Center (AEB). In 1951, founding director, Roy Kumpe, hired Oliver Burke as the center's first full-time orientation and mobility instructor. Burke, who was partially blinded from an injury sustained during WWII, continued in that career until his retirement from AEB in January 1976.
Subjects: Orientation and mobility Rehabilitation Services for the blind and visually impaired