Remembering Leaders
in the Field of Blindness and Visual Impairment
C. Warren Bledsoe
1912 - February 27, 2005
C. Warren Bledsoe, who helped develop the long cane technique for blind people to use in getting around independently died on February 27, 2005 after a lengthy illness and three weeks after the death of Anne, his wife for 53 years. The Columbia, Maryland resident was 92.
Born July 15, 1912 on the campus of The Maryland School for the Blind (MSB) where his father was the superintendent, Bledsoe dedicated his life to the education and rehabilitation of the blind and visually impaired. After graduating from Gilman Country School and Princeton University, he taught English and drama at the Maryland School for the Blind.
While serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, he was
transferred to a 
special unit at Valley Forge Army Hospital in
Pennsylvania to assist with the rehabilitation of service men and women
who lost their vision in the conflict. There, in association with Dr.
Richard E. Hoover, also a former teacher at the Maryland School for the
Blind, Bledsoe helped develop the long cane technique that continues to
be used by blind people throughout the country and around the world.
As the war ended, Bledsoe was charged by Gen. Omar Bradley with
transitioning the rehabilitation techniques developed in the Army
program to the Veterans Administration. He helped develop the blind
rehabilitation center at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines,
Ill., where he also helped establish the model for current
rehabilitation methods for blind people and was appointed Chief of Blind
Rehabilitation Services of the V.A. In 1958, he transferred to the U.S.
Department of Health, Education and Welfare, where he influenced the
commitment of federal funding to establish and promote training programs
for orientation and mobility specialists.
Through his powerful impact on the field of services to the visually
impaired, Bledsoe received numerous awards including the Alfred Allen
Award presented by the American Association of Workers for the Blind
(AAWB) in 1977, the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the
Blind and Visually Impaired's (AER) Lawrence E. Blaha Award in 1986 and
the Ambrose M. Shotwell Award, AER's highest award, in 1990. In
addition, the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) honored
Bledsoe in 1995 with its Wings of Freedom Award, and in 2002 he was
inducted into the Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends in the blindness
field which is housed at APH in Louisville, Ky.
Throughout his career, Bledsoe encouraged the development and
preservation of literature in the blindness field. While
contributing many articles and book chapters to this effort himself, he
worked to preserve complete sets of the field's leading journals in
schools and agencies around the country, resulting in the AAWB
establishing the C.
Warren Bledsoe Publications Award in 1977 for outstanding authors in the
blindness field.
http://www.aph.org/hall_fame/bledsoe_wk.html
http://www.aph.org/hall_fame/bledsoe_nr.html
http://www.aph.org/hall_fame/bledsoe_bio.html