by David Blyth
Reprinted from Blind Citizens News, March 2003
In 1911, for the first time, a meeting was held between three Australian organisations of the blind. They were the Association for the Advancement of the Blind (based in Victoria), the Association of Blind Citizens of New South Wales, and the Queensland Musical Literary and Self Aid Society of the Blind. Each organisation was established by blind people and in 1911, all were controlled by an exclusively blind membership.
At the meeting the organisations agreed to lobby the Commonwealth Government to accept blindness as a form of invalidity for income support purposes. At that time there were only two pensions available to Australians, the Aged and the Invalid pensions, and blindness was not accepted as a qualification for disability support. In 1912, following the organisations’ representations to the Commonwealth Government on this issue, legislation was introduced to allow people to qualify for the Invalid Pension on the basis of blindness. The pension is now known as the Disability Support Pension (Blind).
The 1911 meeting was responsible for guaranteeing income support for blind people and as such holds a special place in our history.
It is interesting to note that only one of the three pioneering organisations has remained as an organisation of the blind.
The Association of Blind Citizens of New South Wales is the only one that has remained an organisation of the blind, and it still does great work with its members.
Establishing a national voice for blind people
Following the meeting in 1911, many unsuccessful attempts were made to hold a meeting of all Australian blindness organisations. These mostly failed because of the distances and costs involved.
In the 1940s the Australian Federation of Organisations of the Blind (AFOB) was formed. Its membership included the Queensland Musical Literary and Self Aid Society of the Blind, the Association of Blind Citizens New South Wales, the Tasmanian Association of the Blind and the Blind Workers Unions from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. In the early 1960’s the Australian Guild of Business and Professional Blind joined. The AFOB was a federation of organisations and did not allow for individual membership.
The AFOB was the organisation responsible for single-handedly, and with bitter opposition from many of the blindness agencies in Australia at the time, campaigning to have the means test removed from invalid pensioners who were blind. This was introduced in 1954. The AFOB’s special place in the history of services to blind people also reflects that it was the first organisation to really attack the deplorable conditions of blind workers in the various states’ workshops, supporting those who were struggling for better conditions.
The AFOB changed its name to the Australian Federation of Blind Citizens (AFBC) in 1968. The AFBC dissolved several years after the National Federation of Blind Citizens (NFBC) came into being in 1975. The differences between the two Federations were that the AFOB and AFBC were solely made up of unions and professional groups – most blind people were not members of any of their affiliates – whereas the NFBC was a membership-based organisation which allowed for individual membership as well as for branches and special groups.
The NFBC has changed its name twice, the last being to its present name: Blind Citizens Australia. Blind Citizens Australia, the national organisation of blind people, has built on the foundations developed by its predecessors. We have branches in each state of Australia and special members from most groups affiliated with blindness.
Many of the privileges enjoyed today are directly attributable to the dedicated men and women who worked tirelessly, without remuneration, in the AFOB to gain a rightful place for blind people within the community. They were often attacked by the blindness agencies of the day but stood steadfast and in the end were successful. Blind Citizens Australia has now assumed that mantle. So long as there are blind people who are being disadvantaged or discriminated against, there will always be a need for a strong, dedicated and resourceful organisation of blind people.