1952 and Before:
Building the Foundations of an International Service Organization

"By the end of the eighteenth century, the forces of enlightenment had created an intellectual atmosphere and moral and social consciousness providing the soil in which the seed of organized education of blind children could grow."
Berthold Lowenfeld, 1973

The history of ICEVI and international cooperation has its roots deeply planted in the history of the education of blind people. The origins of this history date back many hundreds of years. As R. S. French (1932) reports, "the first important instance of the education of a blind person is that of Didymus of Alexandria, who lived in the fourth century of the Christian era." Others say that the beginning of educational provision for the blind can be traced to ancient India, China, Egypt and Japan. Most modern historians agree, however, that modern history of education of the blind commenced in 1784 when Valentin Haüy (1745-1822) started educating a small group of blind children and young people in Paris (Lowenfeld, 1973). Following the example set by Haüy in Paris, schools for the blind were established in 1791 in Liverpool, in 1793 in Bristol and Edinburgh, and in 1804 in Vienna, where Johann Wilhelm Klein (1765-1848) founded the famous Imperial School for the Education of Blind Children. Klein was also productive as a writer and publisher, in 1819, of the first extensive textbook on the instruction of the blind. Subsequently, schools for the blind were established in many large European cities.

It was a comparatively long period of time before the model of the first European schools for the blind was emulated and replicated in America. On the East Coast, three private schools for the blind were founded, at almost the same time. The New England Asylum for the Blind (soon to be re-named the Perkins Institution and the Massachusetts School for the Blind) was incorporated in 1829 and opened in July 1832 in Boston; the New York Institution for the Blind was incorporated in 1831 and opened in New York City in March 1832; and the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind (later re-named the Overbrook School for the Blind) was founded in Philadelphia in 1833.

The movement to establish schools for the blind grew as a result of writings of the directors of the newly established schools, and by word-of-mouth as well. Prominent persons, both within and outside the education community, recognized the great educational needs of blind people, and their presence and influence was vital to this growing movement. Once the institutions were established, there developed an informal international exchange of ideas on education and rehabilitation of the blind.

In 1952, as part of the proceedings of the first International Conference of Educators of Blind Youth, in Bussum, Netherlands, Gabriel Farrell offered this account of ICEVI’s beginnings:

"This Conference was the culmination of the expression of interest in education at the International Conference of Workers for the Blind held at Merton College in Oxford, England, August 4-12, 1949. The Organizing Committee of that conference ‘regretfully decided that…the fundamentally important subject of education could not be adequately discussed, in addition to the minimum program of adult welfare, as the immediate object of the [Oxford] Conference was to draft a series of conclusions which, taken together, should, in the opinion of the delegates, form a minimum program for the blind in any civilized world.’ "

Among the delegates to the Oxford Conference had been several men whose primary interest was in the education of blind youth. While accepting the Organizing Committee’s decision to limit the Oxford agenda to the problems of the adult blind approached exclusively from the point of view of their social welfare, they persuaded the full conference to "record its conviction that it regarded education as the foundation-stone on which all work for the blind was based." After holding several informal meetings, the educators at the Oxford Conference agreed to present the following resolution:

The educators also proposed a resolution calling for an international conference as follows:

"To enable blind persons to participate fully in the life of the community and to contribute to its strength, blind persons, whether children, young persons or adults, should be given full opportunity for general and vocational education, in schools adequately equipped for the education of the blind, and with fully qualified teachers. The Conference puts on record its conviction that every national system of education should ensure to all blind children education according to their interests and aptitudes, at least equal to that which they would have received if they had not been blind."

"Having expressed its conviction of the importance of education, this Conference recommends that steps be taken to convene a Conference, at a later time but as soon as possible, for the discussion of problems of education common to all countries, and thatthe Conference be conducted by persons engaged primarily in the education of the blind."

Both resolutions were unanimously adopted by the Oxford Conference at its Twelfth Session on August 11, 1949.

While the inspiration and authorization for the Bussum Conference [ICEBY, 1952] was derived from the Oxford Conference in 1949, it must not be forgotten that the tradition of national and international gatherings concerned with the education of blind youth reaches back many years, pre-dating those concerned primarily with the welfare of the adult blind. Probably the first series of gatherings established and continued on a national level by educators of the blind was one which began in 1853 with the formation of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind [now AER], and it was more than fifty years later, in 1905, that workers for the adult blind in the United States organized a conference group. In 1873, the German-speaking nations had embarked on a series of meetings, which continued until the outbreak of World War I. Several of these included representatives from the entire European continent. France followed with a series of congresses beginning in 1878. In Great Britain, national gatherings were regularly convened from 1905 to 1911. Starting in 1893 Italy held a series of national meetings of teachers of the blind, and in the Scandinavian countries many well-organized conferences included several countries.

In 1885 a group of representatives from German-speaking countries organized the Universal Congress of Instructors and Friends of the Blind, which was held in the Netherlands. The meeting included representatives of fifteen nations with delegates from North and South America.

But this conference was preceded by the Universal Congress for the Improvement of the Condition of the Blind, held in Paris in 1878. The Paris meeting had marked the first attempt to assemble educators of the blind from many countries. According to Farrell, Universal Congresses were held again in Paris (1900), Brussels (1902), Naples (1909), Cairo (1911) and London (1914). In time these meetings developed into large conferences like those of the ICEVI.

Following the Oxford Conference, it was decided to designate as a sponsoring committee all of the educators present at the gathering. All had talked over plans and were eager to help in organizing a conference conducted by persons primarily engaged in the education of blind people. However, the committee members named in the Oxford report were found to be too widely separated geographically to make frequent meetings possible, so another committee was named at the time of the meeting of the WCWB, held in Paris in July, 1951. This constituted the Planning Committee, and to it was assigned the organization and structure of the conference program and of the arrangements necessary to make it happen.

Another change in the original planning was to seek affiliation of the Sponsoring Committee with the WCWB (the permanent organization created under the authority voted at the Oxford Conference). The Council graciously adopted the Committee as its Committee on Education, which gave status to what until then was an independent group with no attachment to a recognized organization. It also ensured a joint working arrangement with the WCWB and the avoidance of any conflicting or competing efforts on an international scale.