DES MOINES - Iowans are protesting changes made by the Iowa Department for the Blind to a long-used blindness training model provided by the state to help those with vision loss learn how to navigate the world.

On Tuesday, roughly 30 people marched around the IDB building in downtown Des Moines in a demonstration organized by the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa to protest the changes made under new department leadership, which federation president Helen Mejia said has silenced concerns from department employees regarding recent changes to blindness training.

“We definitely also think those changes play into some of the fear that employees have about being able to speak up with the way the agency has become more political, and employees have been told that they can't speak out ab

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