Iris Network helped the visually impaired for the last 100 years

The Iris Network will celebrate its 100th anniversary this week, thanks to a traveling almanac salesman with impaired vision.

William J. Ryan founded the only private agency devoted to Maine's blind and visually impaired in 1905 so they could have a place to learn a trade. His idea took root with the help of supporters such as Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain, whose wife was visually impaired, and Helen Keller, who raised $1,000 for what was then called the Maine Institution for the Blind.

In the decades since, more than the agency's name has changed. The organization was once a place for people to live and work, but its focus now is on helping Maine's estimated 23,000 blind and visually impaired people be part of the community.

It runs Maine AIRS, a statewide program started in 2000 that broadcasts newspaper articles as well as information not typically available in audio form, such as community calendars and obituaries.

Based in eight locations throughout the state, trainers show clients how to perform everyday tasks such as cooking, cleaning and using transportation.

Gone are the on-site workshops where clients for the greater part of the century caned chairs and made brooms. Today, the organization works with the state Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired to place clients with employers.

"With the skills that we teach people and the technology we have, a person who is blind can live and work very efficiently in the community. They don't have to be institutionalized anymore," said Steven Obremski, the organization's president and chief executive officer.

To meet an increasing demand for eye evaluations, the Iris Network launched its Low Vision Clinic in May. It caters to people who have problems doing everyday tasks even with glasses, medication or surgery. Specialists can prescribe visual devices such as magnifying or telescopic lenses.
Portland lawyer Jeremiah Newbury came to the Iris Network when he began to lose his sight in the 1970s. Specialists trained him how to get around with a white cane and how to use a computer with a speech synthesizer.

He now chairs the Iris Network's advisory board and takes pride in how much the organization has accomplished. He points to a project that will replace the boarding house on Park Avenue with a 31-unit complex currently under construction.

Costing $4.7 million, Iris Park will be only the second housing complex in the country designed specifically for people with vision impairment. It will feature signs in Braille and use color and variable lighting fixtures to guide people with limited vision. But changes are in store for people used to living in the dorm setting. Each apartment will have its own kitchen and bathroom.
The project fits into the Iris Network's practice of encouraging independence.

"We've morphed into an agency that wants to get people out into the community," Newbury said. "We're now more of a network where people can get the help they need."