The goal of the Blinded Veterans Initiative at The Hadley School for the Blind is to educate and inspire blind or visually impaired veterans to pursue their personal and professional goals and help support their families. This innovative veteran outreach program is tuition-free for all blind and visually impaired veterans and their family members.
About the Hadley Blinded Veterans Initiative
Veterans can enroll in any of 100+ Hadley distance education courses. Core subjects emphasized through this new initiative include business and entrepreneurship, technology, independent living skills, adjustment to blindness, and braille literacy.
From The Hadley School for the Blind website:
The goal of this new initiative is to educate and inspire blind or visually impaired veterans to pursue their personal and professional goals and help support their families. Visually impaired veterans, through Hadley’s Adult Continuing Education Program, and their family members, through the Family Education Program, can enroll in the school’s distance education courses tuition-free, thanks to our generous funders.
The Blinded Veterans Initiative complements Hadley’s Forsythe Center for Entrepreneurship (FCE), designed to provide individuals who are visually impaired with the knowledge, resources and networking opportunities to advance in their careers or start their own businesses. A new Veterans Benefits module is now available as part of the FCE and this new initiative. This module demystifies the complexity of veteran benefits, including disability compensation, pension, medical care benefits and survivor benefits.
More Information from Hadley
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs, there are an estimated 158,300 legally blind veterans and 700,000 veterans with low vision. In addition, approximately 7,000 veterans become newly blind or visually impaired each year from non-combat-related causes.
“We are very proud and honored to support those veterans who have served our country and their families. This new initiative will enable blinded veterans to regain the confidence and independence they need when they come home from the front lines,” said Hadley President Chuck Young.
For more information about the program, you can visit the Blinded Veterans Initiative at The Hadley School for the Blind website.
Additional Veterans’ Services at VisionAware
A new information hub for veterans with vision loss, titled “Information for Veterans Coping with Vision Loss,” is now available on the VisionAware website. Timed to coincide with this year’s observation of Veterans’ Day, this new resource serves veterans with vision loss, their families, caregivers, healthcare providers, and social service professionals.