Challenges for Students who are Blind that Attend Separate Schools for the Blind

Hello, Everyone. A couple of weeks ago, the blog discussed some challenges for students attending classes in the general education classroom. Today’s Blindness Blog deals with some challenges faced by students who attend a school for the blind.
First, the most obvious challenge to me is the fact that many blind students attending a school for the blind live a good distance from the location of the school, meaning that they must reside at the school. Therefore, they are not able to spend time with family, and they may not be able to make friends at home or feel like part of their home community. Also, the school is responsible for teaching them skills learned at home, such as how to do laundry and how to get along with other kids who live where they do. It is critical for parents of these blind students to ensure that the school is teaching appropriate skills and allowing these kids to spend time indoors and outdoors.
Next, challenges may occur because students who attend a school for the blind may be cognitively at a different level than students their same age or than students in their own grade. Therefore, socialization with peers with the same interests and abilities may be challenging. This challenge results from many students who are blind being mainstreamed and because many students who are blind, including those in public schools, have disabilities aside from their blindness.
Another challenge may be that students do not learn how to operate in a world that is set up for the sighted. For instance, Braille is automatically provided and lessons are many times automatically accessible. This will not be the case when these students graduate and enter the world of college or another option in which sight is highly relied upon. It is critical for the school to teach students how to deal with visual information as my English teacher did at the school for the blind. We had to hand in our English assignments in print, but we could use Braille to edit and correct our work. In college, I hand in print information, but I use my Braille embosser to print out and edit my work.
Finally, I would like to mention that in either type of environment, it is often stressed that those with more vision are more capable than those with less vision, and that this is a false belief. A person’s level of vision does not dictate his or her ability to perform a task. People with different levels of vision may perform tasks differently, but the end result is the accomplishment of the task. For example, a totally blind student uses touch to identify geometric shapes whereas a totally sighted student uses vision to see the shape. Or, a totally blind person may fold a sheet of paper to create a tactile line so that he or she can cut straight across it whereas a sighted student will use a marker to draw a line for his or her guide. All students can learn, and all students can be successful at accomplishing goals; they may just use different techniques to do the work. This expands to bigger tasks as well. Students with no vision can move furniture, for example, putting chairs away, just as sighted students can. It is the way students navigate the environment that is different. A student with legal blindness may use a cane to guide him or her where as a student with sight will use vision to accomplish this goal. Both students, however, will be successful.
Please remember to share news about this blog with other blind or sighted persons that you feel would benefit or find it interesting. Feel free to post the news to the various blindness lists as long as the list does not mind. Also, I enjoy receiving your comments and hearing what you have to say. So please add to this and all discussions if you wish. Thank you.