The Bureau of Customer and Community Blind Services (BCCBS) oversees all Vocational Rehabilitation Services for individuals who are blind, low vision, and deafblind including the Business Enterprise Program and the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation & Education - Wood. Our Blind Services staff teams coordinate services from 25 local offices located in communities throughout the state. Our goal is to help people who are blind or low vision discover, or rediscover, their independence, self-reliance, and employment opportunities.
Vocational Rehabilitation Program
The Bureau of Customer and Community Blind Services (BCCBS) Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Program assists individuals who are blind, low vision, or deafblind to prepare for, obtain, advance in, and maintain competitive integrated employment. Various staff and community partners provide a multitude of services to individuals ages 14 and up. Blind service VR counselors, Rehabilitation Instructors (RI), Orientation and Mobility Instructors (O&M), and coordinators assist our customers in achieving their employment goal.
BCCBS staff work with customers on their employment goals, as outlined in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). These services may include, based on the individual customer needs,
- vocational guidance and counseling,
- determining an employment goal,
- pre-employment transition services including job exploration, work-based learning experiences, counseling on post-secondary training, workplace readiness training, and instruction on self-advocacy,
- physical restoration (which may include funding for assistive technology necessary for visual and communication access),
- possible funding for post-secondary training, and
- job placement and follow-up services.
Rehabilitation Instructors provide vision rehabilitation and education services. O&M Specialists provide mobility training. The RI services include use of adaptive communication, Braille, access and assistive technology, indoor orientation and basic mobility techniques, job site modification, and home management and safety skills. The O&M services include white cane techniques, skill development in the areas of environmental awareness using body, senses, and motor skills, using a human guide, crossing streets, and using public transportation.
BCCBS VR FY 24 Program Highlights
Customers receive vocational rehabilitation, rehabilitation instruction, and orientation & mobility services. We are currently serving 1,341 blind, low vision, and deafblind customers in the vocational rehabilitation program. In FY24, 90 customers with visual impairments were placed in competitive employment, 36 placed by BCCBS. IDHS-DRS customers with vision impairments earning an average wage of $27.06 and working an average of 30.2 hours per week.
Twenty-eight (28) BCCBS staff positions were filled in FY24.
BCCBS VR Program Vision for 2025
- Improve communication with customers, stake holders and community partners by using accessible documents and forms; and
- Collaborate with WIOA and community partners to increase the provision of pre-employment transition services to students who are blind, low vision, and deafblind; and
- Increase the number of customer self-employment plans.
