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Synopsis There are, however, weaknesses in the system, many of which arise from the traditional pattern of development of services for the handicapped. The dependence upon charitable enterprise, with its local variations and unevenness of operation has been characteristic. The development of the movement for the welfare of the blind in the 20 century has not been founded, as in the maternity and child welfare and the mental health services, upon a national effort to co-ordinate voluntary and statutory enterprise. Voluntary services for the blind have been built up for the most part on local interest, the national organisations concentrating largely on special activities such as the production of books, magazines and apparatus, or acting as consultants on questions of education, training and employment.