Being blind can be quite scary sometimes because of loud noises that you can’t see where they are coming from. This is one of the biggest challenges for me. I’ve been blind since birth and when I was younger I didn’t like it as I wanted to see like everyone else. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learnt to accept it as it will never change.
However, since I can’t change my disability, I want to change the view that the world has on people with disabilities by raising awareness. Today, I want to talk about what my experience was like in education whilst being blind. More specifically the support I got.
All the schools I went to supported me very well, I had LSA’s with me the whole time, apart from when I went to a disability specific school. They printed out worksheets in braille for me to be able to read as well as having someone to read for me when needed. As well as this, they always made sure I had the correct equipment to do the work and in exams I had extra time. I had 100% extra time which was great.
The support that I got given changed throughout my school experience as I learnt new things which allowed me to have more independence. For example, for the most part, my LSD was guiding me to different lessons but I was also having mobility lessons which allowed me to sometimes walk to lessons by myself.
Even though I had support from teachers etc, I didn’t get much support from my peers. It wasn’t like they weren’t nice because they were but they didn’t speak to me that much as they always went into different groups. I think this was because they weren’t educated on the situation. However, this was not their fault.
I think what would have helped with this issue would be to hold discussions about my disability. My peers all knew I had a disability but I think they weren’t sure how to approach me which meant that I didn’t make many friends which I found hard.
At first I was the only person like me in a non-disabled school but one or two others came up. However, I never actually saw them or spoke to them but it would’ve been fun if I could have had time with the people who were visually impaired as I would have been able to make friends with them.
Another thing that I wished that I got support with was having more preparation for leaving the educational environment. It would’ve been helpful if I had more opportunities to improve my social skills as they aren’t quite up to scratch. This is because I’ve noticed that I sometimes but in without realizing that I am doing so.
Overall, the support I got from people was amazing. However, there are some improvements that could be made such as discussions about my disability. Watch out for more content from me surrounding my disability and my education experience.