Visually impaired people with learning difficulties: their education from 1900 to 1970 – policy, practice and experience

Accessible summary This paper looks back at the education of people with learning difficulties from 1900 to 1970 who are blind or have very little sight. The information was taken from printed documents and from six detailed interviews with people with learning difficulties who are blind or have very little sight. The paper shows that people with learning difficulties who were blind or had very little sight often had no education at all and that the education they did receive did not usually meet their needs. People with learning difficulties were sometimes placed in schools for children who were blind or had very little sight where they were bullied and abused. It is hoped that this paper will add to the growing history of people with learning difficulties which is based on their own experiences. The information in this paper is taken from a large study on the history of education of people who are blind or have very little sight in Britain. Summary By means of documentary evidence and six in‐depth interviews, this paper traces policy and practice relating to the education of visually impaired children with learning difficulties from 1900 to 1970. It reveals that if visually impaired children with learning difficulties were given an education at all, their needs were not usually met and they were frequently subjected to an oppressive and abusive institutional regime. By giving visually impaired people with learning difficulties the opportunity to voice their experiences, it is hoped that this paper will add to the growing oral history of people with learning difficulties and further their empowerment. The data for this paper was extracted from a study of the history of education of visually impaired children in Britain.