Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
Thanks to Gov. Janet Mills for recognizing Maine’s vision rehab professionals the week of April 14, with her Proclamation of Vision Rehabilitation Therapist Appreciation Week.
The state of Maine is to be commended as one of 22 states that continues to maintain a separate agency, Maine’s Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DBVI), that specializes in blindness and low vision rehabilitation for the thousands of Mainers with a vision loss.
The week of April 14 is national Vision Rehabilitation Therapist (VRT) Appreciation Week, in honor of Anne Sullivan’s birthday, in 1866. Sullivan was one of the pioneers in Vision rehabilitation as a Home Teacher for Helen Keller, who was later instrumental in helping establish the Maine Institution for the Blind, now The Iris Network.
Decades of research from the National Research Center on Blindness and Low Vision show conclusively that states, like Maine, with a separate agency for individuals with vision impairments, have more successful rehabilitation outcomes. Mainers who are blind, or acquire a vision loss from macular degeneration or other eye diseases, have greater access to specialized vision rehabilitation counselors, vision rehabilitation therapists, and orientation and mobility specialists through DBVI. In addition to providing better employment outcomes, and quality of life for those with a vision loss, these outcomes reduce healthcare and other community service costs.
Hats off to Maine’s DBVI, and the vision rehabilitation professionals across the state during #VRTWeek! To find a VRT in your community, call DBVI at 207-623-7948.
Steve Kelley
Kennebunk
