New Deal Accomplishment: 23,505 talking book machines, 45,000+ Braille maps, hundreds of books transcribed into Braille, and many other projects for the blind

Above: WPA workers building talking books in New York City, ca. 1936. These machines were distributed to libraries, and also to organizations for the blind, all across the nation. The Library of Congress sponsored the project with direction from the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A blind man listens to a talking book record in his home in Seattle, Washington, November 1938. According to the AFB, "The WPA also undertook the repair of machines and the purchase and distribution of millions of phonograph needles. By the time the WPA project was phased out in 1942, 23,505 Talking Book machines had been manufactured and distributed along with 7,000 pickup arms, 69.5 million needles, 130,000 record envelopes, 40,500 record containers, and an unspecified number of replacement parts." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Helen Keller listens to a talking book with Robert Erwin, director of the AFB, ca. 1936. Keller once said that talking books were "the greatest boon to the blind since the invention of Braille more than 100 years ago" ("Talking Books Will Be Distributed As Present To 25 Blind Houstonians," The Houston Chronicle, January 10, 1937). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: This photo was taken at the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis, between 1935 and 1943, and shows one of the many blind Americans hired by the WPA to transcribe books into Braille. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: This WPA worker is creating a map for the blind, in Columbus, Ohio, December 1939. As early as 1936, the WPA had created 45,000 Braille maps for 78 schools for the blind ("45,000 Braille Maps Distributed by WPA," Associated Press, in the Allentown Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania), October 19, 1936, p. 1). Also see, "WPA Maps," Perkins School for the Blind, accessed July 4, 2026. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A WPA class for reading Braille in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1935 and 1943. In the July 5th, 1936 edition of The Atlanta Journal it was reported that 124 Georgians had learned to read and write Braille in WPA classes, and that instruction for the blind was also offered in "chair-bottoming, typewriting, music and other subjects" ("124 Georgians Have Learned Braille in WPA Program Here"). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The New Deal also built infrastructure for the blind, such as this PWA-funded building for the Illinois School for the Blind in Jacksonville, ca. 1936 (today, the institution is called the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: In the New Deal, the blind could find employment, job training, and recreation. The description for this photograph, taken between 1935 and 1943, reads, "A project at the home for the blind in Seattle, Washington, WPA teachers give special instruction to blind craftsmen who do basket-weaving, broom-making, and similar handicrafts. Photograph shows a corner of the warehouse where finished brooms are stored." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: This is a WPA service for rural sections of southern Illinois, to transport people afflicted with trachoma to a clinic, 1936 (the clinic itself was also assisted by the WPA). Today, trachoma is not much of an issue in the U.S.--thanks in part to New Deal sanitation projects--but it's still a major problem in various areas of the world. According to the World Health Organization, "Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide." Photo from the National Archives.

A New Deal for the Blind

In addition to the 23,505 talking books and 45,000+ Braille maps, we also see that the WPA transcribed books into Braille - but just how many is hard to tell. Statistics were alternately reported by pages transcribed, books transcribed, or volumes transcribed (a single transcribed book usually required several bound volumes because Braille takes up much more space).

A survey of newspaper archives between 1935 and 1943 suggests that the number of books transcribed into Braille by the WPA was probably in the several-hundreds range. Projects across the nation varied from a few books, to a few dozen, to sometimes (but much less often) hundreds or thousands (for an example of the latter, see "Braille Library Opened at N.D. School for Blind," Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, North Dakota), March 15, 1942, p. 6, noting 2,000 WPA-Brailled books). But even when thousands were reported, one wonders whether they meant individual books or volumes.

There were other interesting Braille projects carried out by the WPA, such as magazines, a garden with Braille labels, and "a 39 volume dictionary, the first complete dictionary ever transcribed into standard English Braille" ("Complete Braille Project," The Cedarburg News (Cedarburg, Wisconsin), October 27, 1937, p. 3). There were even plans to transcribe the WPA state guide for Florida into Braille, but it's not clear whether that project was ultimately carried out ("Florida Guide To Be Printed In Braille," Jacksonville Journal (Jacksonville, Florida), April 3, 1940, p. 18).

Projects to help the blind--which were also carried out by other New Deal agencies, for example, FERA and NYA--were part of the New Deal's massive efforts to help the disabled more generally. These efforts included hiring the disabled, special hospitals, physical therapy, arts & crafts, education opportunities, research, and more.