From: Members of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
To: Members of the Maryland General Assembly
Contact: Ronza Othman, President
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
15 Charles Plaza, #3002
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 443-426-4110
Email: President@nfbmd.org
Date: January 22, 2026
THE PROBLEM
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), Division of Rehabilitation Services (DORS), Office of Blindness and Vision Services (OBVS) is experiencing a critical funding shortage for its program that serves seniors – the Independent Living for Older Blind (ILOB) program.
PROPOSED ACTION
The Maryland General Assembly should restrict $1.5 million of MSDE’s 2027 budget for ILOB funding.
BACKGROUND
The Independent Living for Older Blind program, administered by the Maryland Department of Rehabilitation Services within the Maryland State Department of Education, assists individuals over age 55 who are blind or have a significant vision limitation to live independently in their homes and communities. ILOB provides services such as training on assistive technology (e.g. using magnification devices, computers, screen reading technology, etc.), home management (e.g. cooking, housekeeping, laundry, money management, etc.), and orientation & mobility (e.g. navigating within and outside the home safely with a cane). Due to this funding shortage, blind and low-vision seniors cannot receive needed adjustment to blindness services.
The U.S. Department of Education provides some funding for ILOB, but this funding has been frozen for many years and has not risen consistent with inflation and technology costs. Moreover, the proposed 2026 federal budget eliminates federal funding for ILOB entirely. DORS has been supplementing the federal
grant with Social Security Cost Reimbursement (SS-CR) funds for many years, but other budget challenges have resulted in DORS using SS-CR funds previously used for ILOB to fund the general vocational rehabilitation program. As a result, DORS has severely scaled back ILOB services with no end in sight.
Medicaid and Medicare do not cover ILOB or similar services and equipment because they are not considered medical in nature. There are no other federal funding sources available for ILOB services.
For FY2025 (July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025), there were 1,312 cases opened, 217 of which were closed successfully. Between August 1 and August 15, 2025 (most recent data available), there were 889 cases opened, all of which are sitting with no movement. This is because the current ILOB funding is insufficient to cover even the FTEs/PINs that administer the program. Funding is needed for equipment (e.g. magnifiers, CCTVs, long white canes, measuring cups and other cooking equipment with tactile markings, etc.), assistive technology like screen readers, orientation and mobility teaching, assistive technology instruction, and independent living teaching. At this time, though all cases are open and active, DORS is unable to provide training or equipment to ILOB clients.
In order to clear the backlog of cases and provide sufficient instruction and equipment to ILOB clients, DORS needs $1.5 million annually.
CONCLUSION
We encourage the Maryland General Assembly to add language to the 2027 budget to restrict $1.5 million to be used to fund the ILOB program. Alternatively, we encourage the Maryland General Assembly to add budget language that would require MSDE to use $1.5 million of SS-CR funds to fund the ILOB program and prohibit MSDE and/or DORS from diverting that money elsewhere.