                AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND
                 DOWNSIZES AND RETHINKS MISSION
                       by Kenneth Jernigan

     May 17, 1993, was a critical day in the affairs of the
American Foundation for the Blind, perhaps a turning point in its
history. It was then that the Foundation board met in a stormy
session and by a narrow margin voted to make severe cuts in the
organization's activities and operation. The board went further,
deciding to relocate the Foundation's headquarters, change its
mission, and chart a new course. Whether these actions will lead
the Foundation to a new era of growth and strength or signal the
beginning of its decline as a major participant in the blindness
field is yet to be determined, but there can be little question
that the May 17 decisions will have far-reaching effects.
     A year ago at the Charlotte convention of the National
Federation of the Blind, I discussed the plight of the Foundation
at length in a speech titled "Shifting Balances in the Blindness
Field." I called attention to the fact that the Foundation had
been forced to cut its staff by more than twenty percent, that it
had been losing money each year since 1987, and that it urgently
needed to rethink its mission and focus its effort. Carl Augusto,
President and Executive Director of the AFB, spoke to the
convention following my address and laid out the same broadly
based and vaguely phrased set of goals that I had been saying
were part of the problem. A year has now passed since that
Charlotte convention, and with each succeeding month the dangers
facing the Foundation have become more apparent. Every year since
1987 the Foundation has spent more money than it has taken in,
and even with the draconian cuts of the May 17, 1993, board
meeting, it is not clear that the hemorrhaging has been brought
under control. In 1987 the Foundation had assets of more than
forty million dollars. As best we can determine the figure today
would be more like twenty-five million. The annual budget for
fiscal year 1994, which is just beginning, was supposed to be
fourteen million dollars, down from the all-time high of
approximately fifteen and a half million a few years ago--but
that was before the May 17 meeting.
     By all accounts it was a painful meeting. The Board came to
the unavoidable conclusion that something radical had to be done
to stop the draining of resources. As a starter, the budget for
the coming year was slashed from fourteen million to eleven
million dollars, and some fifty additional AFB employees were
either let go or told that their jobs would soon disappear. This
will bring the AFB staff down to approximately 125, according to
Augusto. Though these staff cuts have been made across the board,
the entire Southeast Regional Center, based in Atlanta, has
closed, at least temporarily; and so has the AFB library,
including the Helen Keller Archives, though Augusto says that the
library will open again as soon as financially possible. 
     Perhaps the most startling decision made by the Board was to
attempt to sell the AFB headquarters of four buildings at 15 West
16th Street in Manhattan. The Foundation has been at this address
(which is a symbol and a landmark in the blindness field) since
the 1930's, and Helen Keller herself helped raise the money for
construction of the main building and placed materials in a time
capsule in its corner stone. According to AFB staff, however, the
current offices are expensive to maintain, and the Board of
Trustees hopes to find more economical facilities somewhere else
in New York City. Apparently the present complex is in such bad
condition that each time one repair is made, a number of others
are required so that continued occupancy is simply not
financially feasible. When asked if the Foundation would stay in
New York regardless of what happens, Mr. Augusto replied that, if
someone offered the organization attractive facilities at a good
price in another part of the country, they would not refuse to
consider the possibility of moving, but that he had a hard time
picturing the Foundation's not having a New York office of some
kind. For one thing, the Foundation says that it is determined to
continue its Talking Book recording studios. Although there are
those who would disagree, the Foundation says it believes the
program of the National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped would be profoundly weakened if it were to
lose the pool of talented readers that are based in New York with
its theaters and broadcast industry.
     Other decisions were made at the May 17 board meeting. The
AFB plans to phase out its sales of aids and appliances for blind
people, though not in the immediate future. The Foundation says
that sales are up at the moment, but according to agency
officials the probability is that the AFB will ease out of this
area completely now that other organizations provide the service.
The AFB has already closed its research department and its
section for developing special modifications to solve individual
technological problems. Some evaluation of equipment is
continuing, but it is unclear how extensive this program will be
in the long run, according to Dr. Susan Spungin, AFB's Associate
Executive Director for Program Services.
     Although publication of texts and other books for the use of
professionals and those studying to enter the field of work with
the blind has all but ceased for the time being, the Foundation
says that it hopes and plans to resume this work as soon as
possible. The Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, AFB's
monthly publication of research and reports of interest to
professionals, will continue to circulate to its 3,300 readers. 
     Those were some of the decisions made by the AFB Board of
Trustees on May 17, 1993. Here is the text of the press release
that was circulated following the meeting: 
        
                     AFB Announces a Refocus
                  of Its Activities & Services

     Since its inception, the American Foundation for the Blind
(AFB) has been looked to as a leader in addressing the challenges
facing people who are blind or visually impaired and the
organizations and agencies that serve them. In response to a
review of the critical needs of the blindness field and in
recognition of the organization's need to achieve fiscal
stability, AFB has announced a refocusing of its activities and
services and a major reduction in staff.
     "The magnitude of the staff reductions and expense cuts was
deep," stated Carl R. Augusto, president and executive director,
"but a comprehensive action was necessary so we can realistically
and optimistically focus our energies on AFB's future. It was
time to sharpen our strategic focus, redefine our priorities, and
guarantee that AFB's tradition of leadership in the blindness
field continues."
     The mission of the organization remains the same--to enable
people who are blind or visually impaired to achieve equality of
access and opportunity--but, in the future, AFB will more
strongly focus on three aspects of that mission: being a
preeminent information resource that makes creative use of
information to benefit the field of blindness, people who are
visually impaired, and the general public; being an objective
think tank and problem solver with a view toward making the most
significant impact on the most important issues facing people who
are blind or visually impaired such as addressing the future of
specialized services; and being the leader in public education
and affecting public policy regarding the needs and capabilities
of people who are blind or visually impaired.
     Major changes at AFB include staff reductions across all
departments; phasing out of the development, manufacture, and
support of AFB engineered products; orderly transition from the
sale of consumer products to a leadership role in galvanizing
efforts to insure and expand the accessibility of products and
assistive technology; and until sufficient funds are available,
discontinuation of M.C. Migel Library services; deferral of the
publication of new books and videos by AFB Press; and closing of
the Southeast Regional Center of Atlanta, Georgia.
     At its May meeting, AFB's Board of Trustees approved a
budget for the upcoming fiscal year that reflects these
reductions. The Board also authorized initiation of the process
of relocating AFB's New York headquarters to more cost effective
space within Manhattan and selling the buildings it currently
occupies.
     "We have concluded that we must make these sacrifices now in
order to have a greater impact in the future," said Augusto. "As
always, we will be looking to all our partners in the field of
blindness to work with us to ensure that the significant issues
of the day are being addressed."
     Further information, including new contacts at AFB, shifting
of responsibilities, and other details will be communicated as
appropriate.
                      ____________________
     That is what the press release said, and though it is still
too early to tell for certain what all of the changes will mean,
it is clear that the Foundation is at last making a serious
effort to stop trying to be all things to all people in the
blindness field and to sharpen its focus. As Carl Augusto said in
an interview, "Instead of trying to implement a hundred good
ideas, we are going to have to limit ourselves to choosing ten
really good ones and be satisfied with carrying those out." Susan
Spungin explained the new focus as a determination to do those
things that the Foundation has always done best. Though the staff
is still scrambling to develop the vocabulary with which to
discuss the new focus, she said that the AFB's activities will
flow into each other. She sees the Foundation as developing a
strategy center in which problems, particularly those with public
policy implications, would be studied and attacked. Naturally
arising from this activity would come preparation of materials to
assist teachers and professionals in the blindness field. And
flowing back from professionals, agencies, and organizations in
the field would come information that would be used for further
research and development in the strategy center. 
     Will it all happen? Is there a fund-raising base to support
such activities? Can the American Foundation for the Blind both
focus its efforts more narrowly and still carve for itself this
or any other stable permanent niche for the twenty-first century?
These are at least some of the questions facing the AFB and the
blindness field. The officials with whom we spoke seemed sobered
by recent developments but say they are optimistic about the
future. Others in the blindness field with whom we talked seemed
to wish the AFB well and applaud the agency's effort to narrow
its scope. The field is certainly facing serious challenges in
the years ahead, and the demise of an institution as venerable as
the Foundation would not be a positive element. The forces
outside the field that are working to divide and weaken the
effort to protect the interests of the blind and the specialized
agencies established to give them service would certainly not be
saddened by the disappearance of the Foundation. If the
Foundation can weather its current crisis and find for itself a
future course of action which is truly in the best interest of
the blind, everybody will benefit.
     As a final thought, I am moved to comment that most
organizations would be delighted with an annual budget of eleven
million dollars and a twenty-five-million-dollar reserve. So why
is the Foundation in crisis? One could argue that it has
overreached its capacity, that it has become inflexible and
immune to change, or that it psychologically lives in a bygone
era and cannot accept the new realities. However, it may be that
none of these is the real problem. When, after the May 17
meeting, I asked one Foundation official about staff morale, the
answer came back, "There is no staff morale." The greatest
problem faced by the Foundation could be that it has lost belief
in itself and its destiny. If that is the case, its troubles are
only beginning.
     Perhaps the Foundation should contemplate (and I hope they
will) the writings of the noted British historian Arnold Toynbee,
whose sweeping theory of human development is called "The Cycle
of Challenge and Response." According to Toynbee every
civilization (and I suppose the same is true of an organization)
faces a constant succession of challenges and confrontations, and
its viability and soundness can be measured by the vigor and
nature of the response. It may meet the challenge head-on,
emerging stronger and healthier for the encounter; it may react
defensively, desperately--leaving the struggle exhausted; or it
may, at the first sign of threat, simply lie down and die.
