The NFB-style white cane is longer than most in order to allow the blind person to use a more natural walking position with their arms at their sides, rather than extended in front of them.

Federation members view the long white cane as a tool of independence and self-determination, rather than one of helplessness and dependency, as it provides greater mobility to the blind.

In 1940 sixteen people met in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to develop a constitution that would unite organizations of blind people in seven states (California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) in a national federation that would serve as a vehicle for collective action to improve the prospects of the nation's blind citizens.

Those sixteen people were: Hazel and Jacobus tenBroek of California; Evelyn and Gayle Burlingame of Pennsylvania; David Treatman, Robert Brown, Enoch Kester, Harold Alexander, and Frank Rennard, all of Pennsylvania; Ellis Forshee and Marlo Howell of Missouri; Mary McCann and Ed Collins of Illinois; Emil Arndt of Wisconsin; Frank Hall of Minnesota (accompanied by Lucille deBeer); and Glenn Hoffman of Ohio.

[6] The founder and president of the NFB for its first twenty years was Jacobus tenBroek, a professor, lawyer and constitutional scholar.

Those who left the NFB united to form the American Council of the Blind, an organization that continues to exist today.

Gradually the group remodeled and occupied the four floors of a block-long building, which they named the National Center for the Blind.

The NFB broke ground in October 2001 for a twenty-million-dollar research and training institute now located adjacent to the National Center.

Continuing to exert its influence, the NFB has taken over Braille Transcriber Certification from the Library of Congress,[8] will receive up to $10 million from a US coin honoring Louis Braille[9] and works to influence state training programs for the blind to require training in the use of the white cane.

Affiliates and chapters pledge to support the national organization while carrying on independent activities in their local areas.

The special interest groups have meetings at the convention during which they elect their officers, and the president gives his presidential report.

The president also gives a speech at the banquet, in which he takes a more philosophical approach focusing on the nature of blindness as a characteristic.

The NFB has developed and requires the students in its rehabilitation programs to use only their own line of lightweight long white non-folding canes.

The purported purpose is to enhance effective travel coupled with the use of dark sleep shades for total occlusion during the intense year long training schedule.

The NFB has always stressed that the blind citizen is to be taught to travel not simply by memorizing specific routes, but by practicing going to unfamiliar places using the long cane and even wearing blindfolds, called sleep shades, if they have any residual vision.

[citation needed] The NFB advocates teaching braille to both children and adults who cannot read print efficiently and comfortably.

[citation needed] The NFB maintains that these adults are functionally illiterate when they are no longer able to read print effectively and braille instruction has not been made available to them.

These facilities have now trained hundreds of blind adults to travel, read Braille, use computers with screen-access programs, cook, and use power tools.

In 1977 the NFB directed the final field trials of the first reading machine, developed by noted inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil.