WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK


physical disabilities. It is geared to helping the people with their
special local problems. The Milwaukee vocational school is one of
the best in the world.

                  Education of the Handicapped

   Those who have read Oliver Twist recall how a century and a
half ago those youngsters who were disabled by industrial accidents
were doomed to lives of beggars. Today in our state through a
series of agencies, much is done to educate and train not only the
physically but the mentally handicapped. Three state agencies carry
the brunt of this program and divide the work among them. Young-
sters under 16 are normally the responsibility of the Department of
Public Instruction and the local public schools. Those over 16 are
the responsibility of the Rehabilitation Division of the State Board
of Vocational Education. Those who are institutionalized are the
responsibility of the Department of Public Welfare.
   Although the State School for the Blind at Janesville and the
State School for the Deaf at Delavan were established long ago, the
major interest in the education of the physically and mentally handi-
capped is a recent development. It was less than 20 years ago that
the Bureau for Handicapped Children was established in the Depart-
ment of Public Instruction. While the schools at Delavan and Janes-
ville continue, the emphasis in the public schools is to provide edu-
cational opportunity for the handicapped as nearly as possible in a
lifelike situation so the day class was developed whereby the local
school provides educational opportunity in the same class with other
youngsters, in the same school but in different rooms or in separate
schools. Important to this development is the testing program
whereby those who have hearing or sight defects, for example, or
are mentally retarded, are discovered. In some cases, instruction is
provided in the home. Handicapped children must be transported.
   Those over 16 years of age who are handicapped may use the facil-
ities of the Rehabilitation Division of the State Board of Vocational
and Adult Education. Assuming that a person who was a typist lost
a hand in an accident, this agency will test him to determine what
his aptitudes are, fit him with appliances to aid him, train him for
a new occupation and watch him to make sure he makes good. Thus
the type of person who in Charles Dickens' day became a drag on his
family or society can today make a new adjustment to become self-
sufficient.
   Those confined to institutions are of 2 types. First we have those
 who are imprisoned to repay a debt to society because of the com-
 mission of a crime. Often they lost their way through life because
 of a lack of vocation or goal in life. Many learn trades while im-
 prisoned which they can ply when released, thereby giving them a
 new lease on life. The second group are those confined because of


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