Blindness and education

The subject of blindness and education has included evolving approaches and public perceptions of how best to address the special needs of blind students. The practice of institutionalizing the blind in asylums has a history extending back over a thousand years, but it was not until the 18th century that authorities created schools for them where blind children, particularly those more privileged, were usually educated in such specialized settings. These institutions provided simple vocational and adaptive training, as well as grounding in academic subjects offered through alternative formats. Literature, for example, was being made available to blind students by way of embossed Roman letters.

The Ancient Egyptians were the first civilisation to display an interest in the causes and cures for disabilities and during some periods blind people are recorded as representing a substantial portion of the poets and musicians in society. In the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040-1640 BCE) blind harpists are depicted on tomb walls. They were not exclusively interested in the causes and cures for blindness but also the social care of the individual.

Asylums for the Industrious Blind were established in Edinburgh and Bristol in 1765, but the first school anywhere, to expressly teach the blind was set up by Henry Dannett in Liverpool as the School for the Instruction of the Indigent Blind. It taught the blind children skills in manual crafts although there was no formal education as such. Other institutions set up at that time were: the School for the Indigent Blind in London and the Asylum and School for the Indigent Blind at Norwich.

In France, the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles was established in 1784 by Valentin Haüy. Haüy's impulse to help the blind began when he witnessed the blind being mocked during a religious street festival. In May 1784, at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he met a young beggar, François Lesueur; he was his first student. He developed a method of raised letters, to teach Lesueur to read, and compose sentences. He made rapid progress, and Haüy announced the success, in September 1784 in the Journal de Paris, then receiving encouragement from the French Academy of Sciences.

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