The Freedom Reader
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The Cost of Visual Impairment
Here we have compiled some data relating to the financial costs of visual impairment.
The Financial Costs of Visual Impairments
Estimated Number by Blind by NEI1[1] 14 Million
Percentage of visually impaired over 65 years of age 66.67%
Percentage of Visually Impaired Graduating 45% (80%)
High School (sighted fellows)
Percentage of Visually Impaired of 76%
Working Age (18-69) who are unemployed
Total U.S. Unemployment as of this writing 3.2%
-- Annual Estimated cost of blindness to the $4 Billion
Federal Government
-- Estimated Annual cost (2001) of $67 Billion
Direct and Indirect costs (transportation, lost work
of the blind and their caregivers)
Number of Visually Impaired School Children 57,425
Children Using Braille as Primary mode of reading 5,500
[1] Numbers vary widely based upon inclusion criteria. NEI estimates that the number of people with visual impairment profound enough to interfere with “activities of daily living,” professional performance, or enjoyment to be 14 million.
Cost of a Student's Reading List in Braille (Conventional Print)
A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
$63.95 in Grade 2 Braille (8)Of Mice and Men (8)
by John Steinbeck
$21.95 in Grade 2 Braille (8)The War of the Worlds
by H. G. Wells
$39.95 in Grade 2 Braille (4)The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance
by H. G. Wells
$34.95 in Grade 2 Braille (5)The Island of Dr. Moreau
by H. G. Wells
$29.95 in Grade 2 Braille (5)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne
$69.95 in Grade 2 Braille (5)The Mysterious Island
by Jules Verne
$129.95 in Grade 2 Braille (7)From the Earth to the Moon
by Jules Verne
$29.95 in Grade 2 Braille (4)Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne
$47.95 in Grade 2 Braille (5)Journey to the Center of the Earth
by Jules Verne
$52.95 in Grade 2 Braille (4)Phantom of the Opera
by Gaston Leroux
$57.95 in Grade 2 Braille (7)The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
$54.95 in Grade 2 Braille (4)The Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
$46.95 in Grade 2 Braille (7)1984
by George Orwell
$66.95 in Grade 2 Braille (8)The Return of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle
$74.95 in Grade 2 Braille (10)Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
$119.95 in Grade 2 Braille (5)David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
$214.95 in Grade 2 Braille (6)A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
$89.95 in Grade 2 Braille (5)Total Cost In Braille: $1248.10
Total Cost in Print: $107.00
