The institution was formed at the suggestion of Joseph Henry Johnson, a former instructor at the Georgia Asylum for the Deaf in Cave Spring. He left that school in 1858 and corresponded with Alabama Governor Andrew B. Moore and State Superintendent of Education William Perry about opening a similar facility in the neighboring state. He purchased property in Talladega and opened the Alabama School for the Deaf on October 4 of that same year. The state purchased the property from him in 1860, but kept him on as president. In April 1867 Johnson's brother-in-law, Reuben Rogers Asbury, who had suffered an eye injury during the American Civil War, lobbied the state's Reconstruction legislature for funds to add a school for the blind, with himself as teacher. The funding was approved in 1870, and the combined institutions were renamed the Alabama Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. The school then served about 70 students. As it grew, it was split again into separate schools in 1887. Josiah Graves took over the Alabama Academy for the Blind and Johnson stayed on as head of the School for the Deaf. In 1892, Alabama founded the Alabama School for Negro Deaf-Mutes nearby, with Graves serving as principal. The schools taught music, math, religion and home economics as well as vocational programs such as farming and trades. Athletic programs in baseball, basketball and American football were also offered, with the deaf teams going by the name "Silent Warriors". In the late 1870s, a student-run newspaper, The Messenger, published its first edition. The Gospel group, The Blind Boys of Alabama, got their start at the Institute for Negro Blind in 1939. Johnson's son, Henry Jr., took over at his death. Under his tenure a bakery, model farm and hospital were added, as well as programs for adults with visual impairments. Eugene A. McBride took over as president in 1955 and opened the Helen Keller school. He oversaw the construction of much of the present campus and expanded the institute's outreach to adults, culminating in the vocational center named for his successor, Euel H. Gentry. The Alabama Industries for the Blind has been the sole supplier of neck ties for the United States Armed Forces since the 1960s. In 2006 it also began producing combat helmet covers and ink jet printer cartridges. The parallel schools were integrated in 1968 following the lawsuit Christine Archie v. AIDB. Under President Jack Hawkins in the 1980s, an AIDB Foundation was created to provide additional financial support for the growing institution. A grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation helped underwrite the creation of regional centers around the state. The current president is Dr. John Mascia.
