They were motivated by the growing number of otherwise able bodied men who could not to find work after they were blinded in industrial accidents.

In the early 1900s, industrialization was in its infancy and fraught with unsafe conditions. For workers who were maimed or blinded on the job, the choices were few. An estimated 7,000 blind adults lived in Pennsylvania at that time and no social safety nets existed–no job retraining, no workers’ compensation, no social security, and no welfare. Injured workers relied on the kindness of their families or begged in the streets to survive.

Also at that time the leading cause of blindness was ophthalmia neonatorum, a condition that babies contracted at birth when they were exposed to harmful bacteria in the birth canal. Few people knew that a few drops of silver nitrate placed in babies eyes would kill the bacteria and prevent blindness.

Coming together to form the agency that would address those two major problems were The Pittsburgh Section, Council of Jewish Women, The Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Pittsburgh School for Blind Children, and private individuals Phoebe J. Ruslander, a prominent Pittsburgh community leader, and leading Pittsburgh ophthalmologist William Wightman Blair, MD.

Nearly 60 years later, Monsignor Paul M. Lackner, working with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, formed the organization that was to become The Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind to meet the daily and social needs of Pittsburghers. Founded in 1959, the Guild offered a rehabilitation program that taught people how to manage their lives with vision loss. Their mission became Independence through Rehabilitation.

With PBA’s focus on employment and blindness prevention and the Guild’s mission of rehabilitation, vision-impaired Pittsburghers were well served. In 1997 they merged to become Pittsburgh Vision Services, maintaining their facilities at Bridgeville and Oakland.

In 2005 the merger was completed when the buildings of both agencies were sold and the new agency, renamed Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh, moved to its current location in the former Homestead Hospital at 1800 West Street, Homestead, PA 15120.

 
Today, the 100-year-old private nonprofit agency carries out the missions of both predecessor agencies by providing rehabilitation and blindness prevention programs at Homestead and employment through PBA Industries, the manufacturing and assembly division, and PBA Products and Services, the commercial services division, both located on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

 
Today’s goal is the same as yesterday’s: To provide blindness prevention education to the public and the rehabilitation training and jobs that people with vision loss need to become as independent as possible in all areas of their lives. BVRS Programs include:

 
TOMORROW
The next 100 years

 
The response of private citizens, so strong yesterday, is vital today for a strong tomorrow.

 
You can powerfully impact someone’s future. With your involvement, well into the next century, BVRS will continue to provide the jobs and training that are essential for people with vision loss to live independent, fulfilled lives and to achieve their dreams.

• Refer a person with vision loss to BVRS

• Join the Chuck Noll Road To Independence Society

• Make a Donation

• Tell People About BVRS

• Donate a Vehicle You no Longer Need

• Become a Volunteer

• Tour BVRS

• Provide Jobs

• Make a Bequest

• Attend or Hold a Fundraiser

• Request a Speaker for Your Service Group

• Sponsor a Vision Impaired Person in a BVRS Program

• Volunteer as a Preschool Vision Screener

• Consider a Career in the Blindness Field

• Join a BVRS Auxiliary

• Donate Used Optical Aids for Others to Use