WHEREAS, education in colleges and vocational schools offers blind students an opportunity to gain the skills necessary for gainful employment; and
WHEREAS, Catonsville Community College has established a special program for blind students and, as a result, many blind students attend Catonsville Community College; and
WHEREAS, though it was ostensibly established to increase opportunities for blind students it actually stifles initiative
by creating an artificial environment and depriving blind students of valuable experience in dealing with the problems they will face after leaving school; and
WHEREAS, the meddlesome and custodial activities of this program include screening readers for blind students; determining what shall be read, what will be read, how it will be read, and when and where reading will take place; interfering
with the relationship between blind students and their instructors; and
WHEREAS, This disrespect was graphically demonstrated when program administrators proposed that students turn over part of their financial aid grants to pay for the cost of operating the special program and the "suggestion" was withdrawn only after administrators learned the proposal was illegal; and
WHEREAS, some blind students at Catonsville Community College have submitted a proposal which deals with the symptoms of the problem
but does not address its root cause; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in Convention assembled this third day of November 1985, in the City of Ocean City, Maryland, that we call upon Catonsville Community College to abolish this special program for blind students.