By Faith and Not by Sight!

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Introduction!
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There are many problems throughout the world. How each individual views these problems
varies; what one person views as significant, another may view as insignificant. Each
individuals perspective and their actions they take to resolve the problem originates in their
passion for the issue. This passion can begin small, in a small community or with a small
number of people, but with effort can lead to large-scale effects. Problems and passions can
vary so greatly from person to person that its often hard to focus on just one. However, through
the efforts of the individuals who are passionate about the issue, many more people can
become passionate about resolving a problem.!

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Problem/Task!
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The issue I want to bring more attention to is the transition of blind and visually-impaired
students from the high school level to the post-secondary education level (Community College,
four-year College, etc.) Many people believe that the difficulty visually-impaired students have in
an educational setting is going away with the introduction of new technological advances that
make education more accessible to handicapped students, allowing them to pursue their
academic goals. For visually impaired students however, this is not the case. On August 26th,
2015, many people protested Amazon becoming the primary provider of electronic textbooks in
the United States because e-books arent accessible to visually impaired students. The
implementation of electronic books in college classrooms makes education inaccessible to blind
and visually impaired students. According to (Blindness), more than 30% of blind and visually
impaired students have less than a high school education, and nearly as many have only a high
school diploma. This is a significant issue, as only 14% of visually impaired students have an
education as high as a Bachelors degree. The problem for visually impaired students is being
given the tools to succeed academically, so they can stay in high school and pursue higher
education.!

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Course of Action!
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There are several organizations already in existence that address this issue, and try to bring
together blind students to encourage them academically. These organizations include the
National Association of Blind Students (NABS, and their respective state affiliates) and the
Envisioning Youth Empowerment (EYE) Retreat. These organizations have records of success
in bringing together students who are blind and visually impaired and helping them succeed in
the transition from high school to higher education. The best course of action to help address
this problem is to fund the organizations already striving to address it. There are over 60,000
(Blindness) blind students in the U.S. and reaching out to all of them is extremely expensive;
therefore, the best way to help these organizations is to provide them with the funds they need.!

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Feasibility and Goals!
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This course of action is feasible because it allows us to give funding to existing, successful
organizations, rather than risking the funds attempting to start an organization ourselves. The
only planning required would be to determine the allocation of funds and to which organization.
To do so, it would be advantageous to determine how each organization would use the funds to

help visually impaired students. The goal of this plan is to help these organizations achieve their
goals; helping blind and visually impaired students reach post-secondary education with the
tools, skills and supportive network they need to be successful.!

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Conclusion!
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Visually impaired students are becoming more successful in their educational pursuits thanks to
the dedication and support of these organizations. For these efforts to continue, support must
be given to the organizations; from the students themselves, from outside contributors such as
visually impaired alumni and from the sighted community. With the help of donations, these
organizations will be able to help visually impaired students continue their pursuits in academics
and inspire them to help future generations of visually impaired students through their
knowledge and experience.!

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"Blindness Statistics." Blindness Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.!
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