Section 21-1-17
Bureau of Information for aid of blind or deaf; powers and duties of Adult Department as to training, etc., of blind or deaf persons; development of policies, etc.
It shall be the duty of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, through its Adult Department, to maintain a Bureau of Information, the object of which shall be to aid the blind or deaf whose training is not otherwise provided for in finding employment, in developing home industries, and in marketing their products. It shall, in its discretion, enter into a cooperative agreement with the State Board of Education to expend funds under the Vocational Rehabilitation Act and any other applicable state or federal law for special vocational training, materials, tools, and books for use as a means in rehabilitating blind or deaf persons who may be in need of such services; and it may, through the employment of teachers, give home instruction to blind persons; provided, that it shall not undertake the permanent support or maintenance of any blind person. The Adult Department is hereby authorized, within its discretion and subject to the control of the board of trustees to use any part of the funds appropriated to it to purchase materials as a means of promoting home industries. Such materials shall be used in the training of blind or deaf persons. After training, all materials and supplies shall be converted into marketable products. Any proceeds from the disposition of said materials shall be credited to the Adult Department for further use in assisting blind or deaf persons in establishing and maintaining home industries. Records shall be kept showing the purchase of all equipment and supplies and the part of the expenditure of same made for training. In order that the provisions of this section may be made effective, the Adult Department is hereby authorized to cooperate with other agencies in the state that may be interested in blind or deaf relief in establishing a sales agency for products made by the blind or deaf. The Adult Department, subject to the control of the board of trustees, may further cooperate with the State Board of Education through the rehabilitation service to provide at its discretion employment tools, supplies, and materials necessary in the rehabilitating of blind or deaf persons not otherwise provided for in this article and may expend funds for physical restoration of indigent blind or deaf persons when this is necessary to their rehabilitation. The director of the Department of Adult Blind and Deaf, the director of vocational rehabilitation and the director of vocational education jointly shall share the responsibility for developing policies, procedures, and budgets governing operation of the adult facilities for carrying out a program of services for the adult deaf and blind, but full and final authority with respect to admission of clients, operation of programs, and related activities shall be vested exclusively in the director of the Department of Adult Blind and Deaf; provided, however, that budgets involving funds from the State Department of Education and policies relating thereto shall be subject to the approval of the State Superintendent of Education.
(Acts 1939, No. 467, p. 680; Code 1940, T. 52, §530; Acts 1969, No. 425, p. 829, §2.)