Designation of National Museum of the Blind People’s Movement

(a)

Findings

Congress finds the following:(1)Equal treatment under the law and equal access to all the rights, privileges, and protections of the Constitution are core tenets of the philosophy of the United States of America.(2)Those noble and lofty ideals have not always been met throughout the course of this country’s shared national history and its movement toward a more perfect Union.(3)People with disabilities have faced unique challenges pertaining to accessibility and civil rights.(4)Blind individuals have experienced systemic discrimination and low expectations but, despite these barriers, have historically made significant contributions to society which have often gone underrecognized.(5)Blind people self-organized on a national basis in 1940 to establish the National Federation of the Blind which has served as a vehicle for collective action by the blind themselves to raise expectations in society.(6)The National Federation of the Blind has served as the model and inspiration for the development of blind-led organizations the world over and sparked the creation of the International Federation of the Blind which later became part of the World Blind Union.(7)Throughout the course of its eight-decade crusade to ensure the full integration of the blind into society on the basis of equality, the National Federation of the Blind has acquired innumerable artifacts, documents, and literature detailing the individual and collective accomplishments and struggles of blind people and how those individuals have contributed to the broader American society.(8)The United States has no cultural institution that centers the experience of blind people and elevates the understanding of how those individuals have worked together to improve society and to change the negative misconceptions about the blind in the Nation and around the world.(9)The National Federation of the Blind has chosen to commit to the collection, preservation, and curation of this history through the Museum of the Blind People’s Movement located inside the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.(10)This will be the first museum owned and operated by the blind of America.(11)The museum, as well as the existing archive which is currently available to researchers, will serve as a national platform to explore the struggles and successes of the blind as individuals, as collectives, and as a movement, and to encourage understanding of the past, and facilitate awareness and evoke dialogue in the present, while inspiring respect, determination, and action for an equitable future.(b)

Designation

The museum known as the Museum of the Blind People’s Movement, located at 200 East Wells Street in Baltimore, Maryland, is designated as the National Museum of the Blind People’s Movement.