About the Nonprofit
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The mission of Perkins School for the Blind is to prepare children and young adults who are blind, visually impaired, or have multiple disabilities with the education, confidence, and skills they need to realize their greatest potential.
Perkins is an international leader in blindness education. We provide educational opportunities for some of the most vulnerable children globally, empower teachers, and set the world standard for educational services for visually impaired students or have multiple disabilities.
As the first U.S. school for children who are blind, founded in 1829, Perkins was established on the principle that all children can learn. Today, we continue this legacy of responding to urgent needs in blindness education and serving children between the ages of 3 - 22 on our Watertown campus through full-time residential and day education programs.
Perkins’ Community Programs serves children with visual impairments in public schools and in communities across New England. Community Programs include the Infant Toddler program (for children under 3), Perkins’ itinerant teachers who rotate through Massachusetts public schools, and outreach courses designed to give public school students immersive and dynamic experiences that they are usually not afforded in their regular classroom setting.
Perkins’ Teacher Training provides in-person and online training for thousands of teachers of the visually impaired each year. Perkins helps ensure that teachers nationwide bring best practices in technology, accessibility, and cortical visual impairment to their classrooms.
Perkins Solutions provides innovative assistive technology products and consulting services around the globe, including website accessibility services and the most widely used brailler in the world. The Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library circulate more than 530,000 items in braille, audio, electronic, and large print formats to approximately 28,000 patrons in the Northeast. Perkins International supports thousands of children, families, and educators in countries such as India and Mexico, working to strengthen capacity to improve education access for children who are blind and have additional disabilities.