Letter to Miss Frimml

Letter to Miss Frimml
Iowa Commission for the Blind
April 4, 1975

Kennith Jernigan, Director

STATE OF IOWA
COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND
4th and Keosauqua Way Des Moines, Iowa 50309
Telephone (515) 283-2601

Miss Jane Frimml
1260 Knapp Hall Iowa
State University
Ames, Iowa 50010

Dear Miss Frimml:

Thank you for your inquiry about clothing for the blind. We have no printed information regarding care and choice of clothing for blind people. If a blind person wants tips regarding styles, he or she may consult fashion magazines such as "Seventeen," "Esquire," and such other magazines as are popular. Some of these are available through the library of the Iowa Commission for the Blind, and blind people can read others by using a sighted friend or employee as a reader. Blind individuals may also attend style shows or go window shopping as sighted people do for information regarding styles. Perhaps discussion among friends has the biggest influence on any individual's opinion of what is most desirable in clothing. Each blind person, like each sighted person, has personal preferences about how he or she wants to look and how he wants to accomplish this look. Within his own wardrobe, a blind person generally can identify every garment by touch, since style and fabric will vary considerably. If color labels in Braille are desired, they are available. Generally simpler means can be found for distinguishing between garments.

We at the Commission for the Blind believe that blindness does not demand complicated systems and devices for the performance of everyday activities. Simple solutions are easy to find in order for a blind person to do shopping, house work and a wide range of jobs in the professions, clerical work, factory work, agriculture, and politics. Simple techniques, some of which are different from those used by the sighted, have been developed for doing these things. The public does not generally understand that blindness is a nuisance which can be dealt with rather easily if training and opportunities are available to the blind person.

It is difficult to convey in a single letter our beliefs about blindness which we consider essential to appropriate services for the blind from this agency. In order for you to gain a more thorough understanding of how blind people handle clothing problems and many other things, we invite you to come to our building at Fourth and Keo...