AS WE have become more concerned with the adequacy of our social services—particularly those affecting the poor, the disabled, and the neglected we have begun to learn not only how hard it is to change inadequate service systems but also how difficult it can be to understand them in the first place. One cluster of approaches to such understanding and such change is that of systems analysis. In these pages, my purpose will be to explore some of the insights one form of systems analysis offers into the complex of institutions which provide services to the blind in the United States.