National Federation of the Blind Founded
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in November 1940 by Dr. Jacobus tenBroek. It became the largest organisation of blind people in the US, pioneering the philosophy that "blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future" and that the problem blind people face is not blindness itself but the misconceptions and inaccessibility of a sighted world.
Founding and Philosophy
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) was founded on November 16, 1940, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, by Dr. Jacobus tenBroek — a blind constitutional law professor at UC Berkeley who would become one of America's foremost civil liberties scholars. The NFB was founded on a radical premise for its time: that blind people themselves should lead and govern the organisation, and that blind people were capable of full social and professional participation.
The NFB's founding philosophy can be summarised in its core belief: Blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. The real problem blind people face is not the inability to see — it is the low expectations, inaccessibility, and misconceptions of a sighted world.
Early Work
In its early decades, the NFB:
- Advocated for state vending stand programs that would provide employment for blind vendors
- Fought for the right of blind people to travel independently with a white cane (white cane laws)
- Challenged the practice of separating blind children from sighted peers in education
- Advocated for accessible textbooks and reading materials
The NFB's approach was always built on the lived expertise of blind people. Its national conventions, beginning in 1940, brought together thousands of blind members to deliberate, vote on policy, and hold the organisation's leadership accountable.
Tenbroek's Contributions
Dr. Jacobus tenBroek's academic work on constitutional law and disability rights helped lay intellectual foundations for the disability rights movement. His 1966 law review article, "The Right to Live in the World: The Disabled in the Law of Torts," was an early articulation of the right of disabled people to access public space — a right that would eventually be codified in the ADA.
Contemporary NFB
Today the NFB is the largest organisation of blind people in the United States, with approximately 50,000 members and affiliates in all states. It continues to advocate for Braille literacy (arguing that Braille is essential for true literacy and independence), accessible technology, and the right of blind people to live and work in the community on equal terms with sighted people.
The NFB's position on language and identity — actively embracing the word "blind" and rejecting euphemisms like "visually impaired" or "visually challenged" — has been influential in disability rights discourse more broadly.