by Amanda Lacy, edited by Hannah Cooper
People with visual disabilities earn bachelor’s degrees in all fields at a rate less than half that of people without a disability. In general, there appear to be more blind students at community colleges and smaller universities, and fewer than one might expect to find at larger institutions like Texas A&M. Further, this trend also seems to hold true internationally.[1]
Generally, the problems faced by blind college students are grouped into three main categories: Social, Architectural, and Academic. For the number of successful blind students in Engineering (or any other program) to increase, all three of these areas must be addressed. This will require organizational and technological approaches, which will be described in more detail over the next few posts.
Until recently, there were no blind students in sighted classrooms, as they were educated in institutions for the blind and, sometimes, not educated at all. With the best intentions, educators in western countries throughout the past few decades have decided to integrate most blind students into mainstream schools. The result is more academic success than socialization success, with blind students being frequently included in classroom activities but excluded at break times. For example, the parent of a blind third-grader writes, “The teacher said to me: “[I]t is so funny, [the child] climbs up and sits in a tree every break!” …That feels terribly sad to think about, since that was [the child’s] way of handling insecurity during the breaks when [the child] couldn’t find the peers and didn’t know what to do – like “well, I climb up a tree and hide there until it’s over” – and no-one understood this…” [2]
As someone who was once a blind third grader (and had my own favorite places to hide at recess), I can easily picture this scenario. As he stepped outside, his ears would have been hit with the indecipherable noise of children shrieking and playing. He likely could not recognize anyone he knew amid the chaos. Wandering out into the open yard would have been dangerous, as he could have been hit by balls being thrown or clobbered by children who were not paying attention to where they were running or just expecting the blind kid to move out of the way like the other kids. So, the logical course of action was to find a safe spot and claim it until recess was over.
As everyone grew older, more group activities became sedentary. Still, the social problems that remained by high school were the ones that were the most difficult to address by intervening parents and teachers. These included difficulties contributing to group projects with other students and isolation outside class. The most common responses to these adversities were to focus exclusively on grades and ignore other students or make blind friends outside of school. I employed both of these strategies. Frequent exclusion by peers (e.g., never identifying oneself when speaking) can create lifelong patterns of self-isolation that continue into college and work, as blind people often learn to anticipate the feeling of no reward from most human interactions.
Conclusively, people with visual disabilities face significant challenges in obtaining a college degree, with their enrollment and graduation rates lagging behind those without disabilities. Additionally, the integration of blind students into mainstream schools has had mixed results, with academic success often overshadowed by social difficulties such as isolation and exclusion. In the next post, I will address obstacles the visually impaired often experience and propose solutions to improve these individuals’ educational and career prospects.
References:
[1] Lourens, H., & Swartz, L. (2016). “Experiences of visually impaired students in higher education: bodily perspectives on inclusive education.” Disability & Society, 31:2, 240-251, https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2016.1158092
[2] de Verdier, K. (2016). “Inclusion in and out of the classroom: A longitudinal study of students with visual impairments in inclusive education.” British Journal of Visual Impairment, 34(2), 130–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/0264619615625428