| Description | Interview with John Broadley, Scottish braille press. He talks about the origins of blind welfare in religious charitable and voluntary societies, and the outdated, paternalistic attitudes of these institutions which lay down policies that dictate a blind person's life. He discusses his own education and being placed in the braille printing works, his training there and the beginnings of his interest in blind welfare. He talks about his involvement in the National League of the Blind, an organisation affiliated to the Trades Union Congress, and his apprenticeship. He describes his experiences of living in lodgings and his worries about his income, which prompted his interest in trade union and other blind welfare activities. He talks about the interests of the National League of the Blind in education, training and care for older blind people and the knowledge he gained from his involvement in campaigns for a national minimum wage in blind workshops and state responsibility for maintenance paid to unemployed blind people. He describes his initial reactions to the existing system of blind welfare and the conditions that blind people were working in (tracks 1-6).
Total: 16.49 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF565D0997780 |