Blind Ambition: Alabama Institute For Deaf And Blind Has Untapped Limitless Potential Of Thousands

By Chuck Chandler

Had William Seaborn Johnson been like his nine siblings, countless people in the past 160 years might have led diminished lives.

Seaborn was deaf, which inspired his older brother, Joseph, to start a school in 1858 that years later became the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB). Today, the wide-ranging programs on the huge campus in Talladega are renowned worldwide as the staff continues to break ground training disabled children and adults in 90 different buildings. AIDB’s motto is “Deaf. Blind. Limitless.”

When the school began teaching 21 deaf children sign language, reading and writing at Manning Hall, it was taking the first small steps toward a statewide educational network that today serves about 25,000 people annually. The building on the National Register of Historic Places was constructed in 1850 but no longer has classrooms. It is the managerial epicenter of Alabama’s largest employer of blind, deaf and deaf-blind adults.About 25 percent of AIDB’s 1,300 employees are disabled in some fashion. AIDB has five Talladega campuses, eight regional centers across Alabama and welcomes students from all 67 counties. Tuition, room and board are free for Alabama residents. Some 10,000 elderly people in the state receive assistance for hearing and sight problems.

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