Narrative: III. b. 5. C.

As outlined previously in this Plan, New Jersey utilizes an option to deliver Vocational Rehabilitation services through two distinct programs. The majority of services are delivered through Vocational Rehabilitation staff housed at NJDOL for any individuals with disabilities.  A portion of allocation is segmented and distributed to the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI), housed within the New Jersey Department of Human Services; CBVI focuses on serving individuals who are blind, vision-impaired or deaf-blind. 

The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVRS) and Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI) work under a Memorandum of Understanding outlining:

• The criteria determining to which program an individual customer is referred based on their disability;
• Methods of referral between the two agencies and their services and programs;
• Eligibility;
• Consultation and coordination between the two agencies; and
• Interagency meetings, exchange of materials, interagency liaisons.

The MOU allocates funds based on an 80/20 split, with 80 percent of allocable funds going to DVRS and 20 percent going to CBVI for their respective program operations.  This allocation is justified by the following factors:

• Population.  The distribution takes into account the proportion of persons with disabilities who are expected to be served by each agency, based on prior history. This proportion has been stable since the MOU was first signed in 2000.
• Level of services. In general, it is understood that delivering high-quality vocational rehabilitation services to blind, vision-impaired, and deaf-blind consumers is more expensive on average than it is to deliver similar services to persons with other disabilities, because of the extra training required to enable these consumers to function successfully and independently with limited or no vision. Specifically:
  • CBVI administers a year-round, residential program to provide blind, vision-impaired, and deaf-blind consumers with training in pre-employment blindness skills, e.g. Orientation and Mobility; Braille or other low-vision communication strategies; assistive technology instruction; skills of independent living (techniques for independently managing in the home, including cooking, dressing, cleaning, money management, etc.); and classes on Adjusting to Blindness or Vision Loss.
  • Similarly, these same services are offered to some consumers in their homes, where they are unable or unwilling to invest an extended period, on average approximately twenty weeks, in New Jersey’s intensive residential program.
  • Additionally, some consumers are sent out-of-state for blindness-specific, pre-employment training, where CBVI does not offer the particular instruction needed for a given consumer's employment objective.
  • Due to the nature of the disability, a disproportionate number of blind, vision-impaired, and deaf-blind consumers require substantial amounts of post-secondary education in order to qualify for the types of jobs where blind, vision-impaired, and deaf-blind consumers have traditionally been most successful and accepted within the labor market.
  • The cost of assistive technology that enables blind, vision-impaired, and deaf-blind consumers to function effectively remains disproportionately high, as compared to unmodified technology used by non-disabled or non-blind consumers of vocational rehabilitation.