Iowa Department for the Blind
The Iowa Department for the Blind is an agency of the Iowa state government, headquartered in Des Moines. The agency serves citizens who are blind or low vision in the state.
History
The Iowa Commission for the Blind (later renamed the Iowa Department for the Blind) was established on April 2, 1925, following an appearance before the Iowa General Assembly by author and disability rights advocate Helen Keller. In early February 1925, Keller, accompanied by her teacher Anne Sullivan and Charles B. Hays, director of the American Foundation for the Blind, testified in support of a bill introduced by Senator Harry Cook White of Tama County. The legislation called for the creation of a state committee to oversee the training and education of blind Iowans, and its passage that April formally created the Iowa Commission for the Blind.
The agency's founding was part of a broader early twentieth century movement to expand state-level services for blind and visually impaired citizens, with an emphasis on employment and educational equality rather than custodial care.
In 1958, Kenneth Jernigan moved to Iowa to become director of the agency. While there, Jernigan developed and successfully implemented a new model for rehabilitating the blind known as "structured discovery." Eventually, Jernigan's model was utilized by rehabilitation programs around the world.
After Jernigan had been in Iowa for only two weeks, he wrote a detailed letter to Governor Herschel Loveless outlining the deplorable conditions he had found in the agency upon his arrival. He listed countless critical needs of the agency to be addressed. In 1968, Jernigan was presented with a citation from President Lyndon Johnson for his work at the agency. Harold Russell of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped visited Des Moines on behalf of the president to present the award. In his speech, Russell said, "If a person must be blind, it is better to be blind in Iowa than in any other place in the nation, or the world!"
During this period, tensions grew between the agency and the Iowa Braille and Sight-Saving School in Vinton, then under the Iowa Board of Regents. In 1969, Jernigan and the agency sought legislation to transfer authority over the Braille School from the Regents to the IDB, arguing that blind-led vocational programming should extend to the education of blind children. The 1969 effort, though initially gaining support from the governor and a number of state legislators, was defeated in early 1970 following opposition from the school's administration, alumni, and the newly formed Iowa affiliate of the American Council of the Blind. The controversy contributed to a period of sustained public criticism of Jernigan and the Commission through the 1970s, including newspaper allegations regarding the agency's operations, and Jernigan resigned as agency head in 1978 after 20 years in the post.
In February 2023, Governor Kim Reynolds' state government reorganization bill, Senate Study Bill 1123, made changes to the agency that drew opposition from blind and deaf Iowans. The new legislation gave the governor direct appointment power over the department's director and eliminated the agency board's authority to appoint its own officers, a structure that had been in place for nearly a century. At the time, the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa argued the change would politicize the agency and undermine its tradition of being led by people knowledgeable about blindness.
Programs
The Iowa Department for the Blind provides a broad range of services designed to help blind and low vision Iowans live independently and achieve competitive employment, funded primarily through state and federal funding so that most services are offered at no cost to eligible residents. Its core offerings include the Orientation Center, vocational rehabilitation and employment services, the Business Enterprise Program, and independent living services. The agency also operates the Iowa Library for the Blind and Print Disabled with over 88,000 book titles. In addition, the agency offers technology services to help clients access adaptive tools, and provides services for youth and families to support younger Iowans and their households.
Leadership
The IDB is led by a 3-member board of commissioners with a director as agency head, appointed by the Governor of Iowa (subject to confirmation by the Iowa Senate).
Directors
The below individuals have served as agency head since its founding in 1925.
- Ethel Towne Holmes (1925–1956)
- Malcolm Jasper (1957)
- Kenneth Jernigan (1958–1978)
- John Taylor (1978–1982)
- Nancy A. Norman (1982–1984)
- R. Creig Slayton (1985–2001)
- Allen C. Harris (2001–2008)
- Karen Keninger (2008–2012); later appointed as director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
- Richard L. Sorey (2012–2016)
- Emily Wharton (2016–2024)
- Stacy Cervenka (2025–present)