Joyce Eileen Scanlan, longtime leader of National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota, dies at 85 January 11, 2021 12:39pm Text size Copy shortlink:
Joyce Eileen Scanlan could not get a teaching job in Minnesota when she moved to the state in the 1970s. She had been teaching English and Latin for years in North Dakota and Montana, but schools in Minnesota would not hire her because she was blind, said her husband, Tom Scanlan. They d ask, How would you find your way around the school and how would you find the bathroom? he said.
So she took up a job proofreading Braille and spent much of the rest of her life as an advocate and champion for the blind, leading the charge to add disability protections to the Minnesota Human Rights Act and to require the teaching of Braille in public schools.