swered and the form returned to the Bureau at Harrisburg in a re-
turn addressed envelope which is sent with the questionnaire or regis-
‘pation form. A citizen referring the name of a disabled person to
the Bureau of Rehabilitation can, a few days later, be of aid to the
disabled person in filling out the registration form and seeing that it is
returned to Harrisburg,.
The reason why such registration form is sent by mail is primarily
sconomic and in the interests of conserving the Bureau’s funds that
they may be of maximum benefit to the greatest possible number of
disabled persons. The return of such registration forms by mail,
properly filled out, brings full preliminary information from any sec-
tion of the State at an operating cost of approximately ten or fifteen
cents per case, although if the Bureau sent one of its representatives
to interview each disabled person reported, to obtain such preliminary
information, the cest would be, on an average at least, five or tem
Jollars per case. The sending of registration forms by mail was begun
in a tentative way, but it has been continued because it was found to
be successful, as well as economical. Approximately 20 per cent of the
total number of registrations received at the Bureau of Rehabilitation
are from persons who cannot read or write the English language, and
approximately 4 per cent are from persons having defective vision in
both eyes. In every such case, friends or relatives, undoubtedly filled
out the registration form for the disabled person, and aided the Bureau
in the conservation of its funds.
ORIGIN OF CASES
Disabled persons in Pennsylvania are reported to the central office
of the Bureau of Rehabilitation, Harrisburg, from a number of sources.
Many disabled persons, unable to obtain suitable employment, through
their own efforts, write directly to the Bureau, or their friends write
for them. Employers, officials and members of labor organizations,
sompensation insurance carriers, hospitals, physicians, soeial agencies,
educational institutions and field representatives of the Department
of Labor and Industry are constantly referring names and addresses
of disabled persons to the Bureau.
The majority of references come, however, from the Bureau of
Workmen’s Compensation which is also a branch of the Department
of Labor and Industry. Reports of all industrial accidents in Penn-
sylvania, resulting in injuries to workers, are received at the Bureau
of Workmen’s Compensation and whenever such reports indicate in-
juries of a severity that will probably prevent the vietim from return-
ing to the former employment, indicated on the accident report, in-
formation is transcribed, in the Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation,
to a definite form for transmission to the Bureau of Rehabilitation.
Information regarding persons disabled in industrial accidents in
Pennsylvania is consequently received daily at the Bureau of Re-
habilitation. Registration forms are sent from the Bureau of Rehabili-
sation at Harrisburg to all disabled persons reported from all sources.
When a registration form, filled in by a disabled person, is received
at the Bureau at Harrisburg, a duplicate copy of that registration
form is made and sent to the branch office of the Bureau having juris-
diction of the district in which the registered disabled person resides.
The central office and branch office districts with the counties included
in each such district are as follows;