By Kim Gibbens
Imagine for a moment that you’re recently retired. Then slowly — or even suddenly — your vision begins to slip away. You’re no longer able to perform basic household functions or to care for yourself without help. You become demoralized, confused and depressed.
Now imagine — after paying state and federal taxes for your entire life — being told you’re no longer eligible to receive vital services designed to teach you how to care for yourself independently. You can’t take advantage of programs that train you how to ride a bus, how to safely cross the street, how to make an omelet or clean your living room. You’re ineligible, they say, because bureaucrats have labeled you a “homemaker” with no specific plans to enter the workforce.
For thousands of blind and visually impaired people across San Diego County, this nightmarish scenario may soon become a reality.
Congress is currently poised to adopt sweeping changes to the federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act, which provides funding for training programs geared toward getting disabled people back to work. The changes being considered would slash all federal funding for disabled people — including the blind and visually impaired — who are categorized as “homemakers” not planning to head back into the workforce.
As a practical reality, the proposed changes would guarantee that thousands of San Diegans — many of whom are baby boomers or older and shouldn’t have plans to re-enter the workforce at this well-earned stage of their lives — will lose access to services that are absolutely crucial to their continued independence. None of the San Diego Center for the Blind’s vital services are covered by insurance, and if Congress abandons thousands of blind and visually impaired Californians who fit into the “homemaker” category, they will have no way to access much-needed training through the state Department of Rehabilitation.
Among those affected would be people like 94-year-old Sylvia “Sy” Tucker, who contributes to her community each and every day as a Bonsall Unified School District board member, an educator and a published author. Sy’s vision loss is progressing and she relies on programs like those we offer in our Vista center to ensure she can continue living a full, robust life. But if officials in Sacramento and Washington don’t continue funding homemaker services, Sy will no longer be eligible for help.
At the San Diego Center for the Blind, we know that training blind and visually impaired people in independent living skills, orientation, mobility, and adaptive technology is absolutely critical to ensure this growing population stays safe, independent, and in their homes. Changes like those being proposed would severely curtail our life skills training programs’ length from six months to — at most — six weeks, and would drastically undercut their effectiveness.
That’s why we’re calling on our legislators, elected officials, and everyday citizens to get involved and ask that Congress not abandon Californians who depend on services like ours to help them regain their independence and lead productive, healthy lives. Call the U.S. departments of Education and Labor or write a letter to your member of Congress asking them to rethink this unnecessary cut and continue funding homemaker services. Please help us make sure thousands of San Diegans aren’t cast aside and left without a helping hand.
Kim Gibbens is the chief executive officer of the San Diego Center for the Blind.