Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB) is a state-operated education, rehabilitation and service program for deaf, blind, and multi-disabled individuals. The program, headquartered in Talladega, operates the Alabama School for the Blind and Helen Keller School of Alabama boarding schools, as well as the E. H. Gentry Facility vocational training center and the Alabama Industries for the Blind. AIDB also operates regional centers in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa and 11 other cities.
The program was founded in 1858 through the efforts of Joseph Henry Johnson, who acquired property in Talladega and petitioned Governor Andrew Moore and Superintendent of Education William Perry to fund a school for the deaf. Act of Alabama 1860-253 gave the state's sanction to Johnson's fledgling institute, bought the land from him, and appointed him as president.
After the Civil War, Johnson's brother-in-law, Reuben Asbury, who had lost an eye in the fighting, suggested expanding the program to help the blind. The Alabama State Legislature approved the proposal in 1870. The combined program, called the Alabama Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, served about 70 students that year. Students began publishing a newspaper, The Messenger in the late 1870s.
The institute was split into separate schools in 1887 with Johnson keeping charge of deaf students and Josiah Graves hired as president for the Alabama Academy for the Blind.
In 1892 Graves was made principal of the newly-created Alabama School for Negro Deaf-Mutes, it was expanded into the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and Blind.
Johnson died in 1913 and was succeeded as director by his son, Henry Johnson Jr. He oversaw a broadening of programs, including the first services to visually-impaired adults. The Helen Keller School opened in the late 1950s. The schools were desegregated in the 1960s, with integration fully implemented only after Demetrius Newton filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Black girls who continued to experience unequal access in 1967.
The non-profit AIDB Foundation was founded in the 1980s to support the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind and its expansion statewide through its regional centers.
Directors
- Joseph Henry Johnson, 1858–1913
- Henry Johnson Jr, 1913–
- Herndon Dowling Sr, 1945–1948
- John Bryan, 1948–1955
- Eugene McBride, 1955–1962
- Euel H. Gentry
- Jack Hawkins Jr, 1979–1989
- John Mascia, –2023
- Dennis Gilliam, 2023–
References
- "Suit Asks Desegregation Of School For Deaf, Blind." (August 5, 1967) Associated Press / The Montgomery Advertiser, p. 8
- Hawkins, Jack Jr & Robert Hill Couch (1983) Out of Silence and Darkness: The History of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, 1858-1983. Troy State University Press
- Hawkins, Jack Jr (August 30, 2023) "Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind." Encyclopedia of Alabama - accessed November 21, 2023
- Rebman, Stephani (November 19, 2023) "Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind names new president." Birmingham Business Journal