Organizing the Blind

This book is a case study which narrates the history of the National Organization of the Spanish Blind (ONCE). Contrary to other affluent countries where most blind people live on welfare benefits, the Spanish blind enjoy full employment. The average income of the Spanish blind is higher than that of the sighted. Why is this so? This book shows that ONCE answers those questions, and explores ONCE's origins, and the shifting strategies that the organization has pursued to adapt to an ever-changing environment, to include authoritarian and democratic regimes. An historical narrative, the book lies at the intersection between disability and organization studies, history and sociology.