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The National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute leads the quest to understand the real problems of blindness and to develop innovative education, technologies, products and services that help the world’s blind to achieve independence.
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is a consumer organization of blind people working together to improve opportunities for the blind and the understanding of blindness by the general public.
We believe that the real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight; the real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of information which exist. If a blind person has proper training and opportunity, blindness is only a physical nuisance. It is estimated that over 1.3 million persons in the U.S. are blind and each year as many as seventy-five thousand more will lose all or part of their vision. Studies show that only AIDS and cancer are feared more than blindness. However, blindness need not be the tragedy which it is generally thought to be.
Education, one of the primary initiatives of the NFB Jernigan Institute, has always been a cornerstone of our work and plays a critical role in the future programs of the NFB Jernigan Institute. Like the other Institute initiatives, the Education Program is responsible to the membership of the National Federation of the Blind.
The NFB parent outreach effort, the quarterly publication of Future Reflections, and the volunteer leaders in the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) together create a seamless national, state, and local network of information, resources, and support for parents.
The Jernigan Institute's Seniors program is another primary initiative of the Institute. The Institute established its Seniors initiative because seniors are the fastest growing group of people becoming blind. The goal of the initiative is to improve resources and opportunities for blind senior citizens so that they may remain active, independent members of their communities. | 
