A.

VISUAL IMPAIRMENT

A.I. FOUNDATIONOF EDUCATION OFVISUALLYIMPAIREDP

CHILDREN

1.1. GENERAL ORIENTATION OF DISABILITIES

A disability implies activity limitation and is caused in
by an impairment physical,
sensory or intellectual functioning. We will deal with those disabilities which interfere
with the educational process or need special adaptations in a
job,.
BLINDNESS

Definition
According to WHO, "Blindness means maximum vision less than 3/60 (1/20,
20/400) and minimum vision equal to or better than no light perception"

Low Vision

According to WHO, "Low vision means nmaximum vision less than 6/18 (3/10,
20/70) and minimum vision equal to or better than 3/60 (1/20, 20/400) in the affected
eye".
For practical purposes if a clhild, cannot count the tingers of an outstretched hand
held at a metre's distance, he should be treated as blind.

The field of vision of the human eye is 180 degrees. If this field is reduced to 20
degrees or less, the person is considered blind even if his distance vision is much higher.

HEARING IMPAIRMENT

Definition
Mild Loss in Hearing/Auditory Sensitivity
According to WHO, "A hearing threshold level of 26-40 decibels (ISO), or the ability
to hear and repeat words spoken in a normal voice at a distance of one metre. Such a
person usually has some difficulty with hearing but can hear normal levels of conversation".
 Sensitivity
/Auditory
Moderate Loss in Hearing
threshold level
of 41-60 decibels ibels (1s
(ISO), or the
WHO, "A hearing d i s t a n c e of one metre"
al
According to raised voice at
a
to hear and repeat
words using
Sensitivity
/Auditory
Severe Loss in Hearing
decibels (ISO), or the
the.

According to WHO, "A hearing

level of 61-80 ability to hear
ear".
shouted into the
some words when

Sensitivity
Profound Loss in Hearing /Auditory
decibels (ISO), oorr .
threshold level of81
According to WHO, "A hearing
,

greater, 0

even a shouted voice".

inability to understand

causes problems
in c o m m u n i c a t i o n . Hearing Impairod
Hearing impairment d
needs to spend considerable time on learning speech and language. Some countries have
developed finger spelling systems which make it easier tor the hearing impaired ild to
understand what someone is saying. Gestures are also used. All the methods used ogether

are called total communication.

The main problem in the education of hearing impaired child arises from the childe
inability to communicate effectively. This can be overcome partly, by powerful modem
hearing aids. The classroom can be fitted with a loop inductance system which will allow
better freedom to the hearing impaired child in the classroom.

LOCOMOTOR IMPAIRMENT

Definition
The Persons with Disability Act, 1995 defines the locomotor impairment as
"Locomotor disability means disability of the bones, joints or muscles leading to substantial
restriction the movement of limbs
of
or any form
of cerebral palsy". Locomotor impairment
may arise from
congenital deformities or may be caused by such diseases as poliomyehts.
In locomotor
impairment, a limb may be fully or partially paralysed or may be amputatea
The
following classification is usually made:
-

If both the lower limbs are affected, it is known

Paraplegia.
as
If one side of the body is affected, it is called
If all the four limbs
Hemiplegia.
are affected, it is called
Locomotor impaired children do
Quadriplegia.
However they may need such
not
usually experience blems.

as appliances crutches, calipers,special educatO chairs and

tricycles, whee
and
 Access to the
built
environment through ramps, broader doors to
wheelchaTs, specially permit the e try of
few adapted commodes and rails in the
a
examples of providing access to the
bathroom for holding are oniy
built environment.
CEREBRAL PALSY
The
Disability Act of 1995 defines cerebral
of
a
palsy as, "Cerebral Palsy means
non-prOgressive conditions of person characterized a
group
by abnormal motor control
posture
of development".

in cerebral
palsy, the child may have a variety of motor
including faulty articulation. In some problems.
have speech problems He may also

may have visual and cases, cerebral palsied child

hearing problems.
Spasticity is the commonest of three
forms of cerebral
rigidity in movements. palsy. It is characterized by

MENTAL RETARDATION

Definition
The
Disability Act of 1995 defines mental retardation as, "Mental Retardation means
a condition of arrested
or
incomplete development of mind of person which is specially a
characterized by subnormality of
intelligence".
Children with mental retardation are often classified
and
as educable, trainable, severe
profound. The educable child can usually learn some academic skills and reach the
level of the fifth or sixth class. However such a child is
slow in learning and
may require
considerable curricular adaptations. The
following principles should be kept in mind in
teaching such a child:
- Repetition.

Concreetization.
-

Breaking tasks into small units.

Short lessons.
The trainable child cannot
usually learn academic skills. He may be trained in
survival skills and may be able to do some work at home or in a
sheltered environment.
The profoundly and severely retarded child may require constant home or hospital
care.

5
LEARNING DISABILITY

processes
Definition basic
psychological

Ved
of the
disorder in o n e or
more

or
written,
which may manifest itself in a
manifest

"A spoken
language,
understanding
or in using
handicaps,
brain injury, minin
perceptual includoan
conditions as does not
includes such The term
The term
and
developmental
aphasia.
result of visual, hearino or n ep
dyslexia the
dysfunction,
which are primarily o
problems of environmental
who have learning
mental retardation,
or
emotional
disturbance or
cultural
or
handicaps,
or economic disadvantage."
children and adults
disabilities
encountered among Eac
The foregoing are major disability has special edura
field. As a rule each cational
in
it will be usolf.
some
disability limits, activity is associated with an
impairment, useful to
implications, since every disability
and Participation.
define the terms Impairment, Activity

AND FULL PARTICIPATION AG

1.2. IMPAIRMENT, ACTIVITY
DEFINED BY WHO
loss abnormality of body structure or ofa
According to WHO, "Impairment is a or

physiological or psychological function'".

the level of
WHO, "Activity is the nature and extent of functioning
at
According to
the person. Activities may be limited in nature, duration and quality".

According to WHO, "Participation is the nature and extent of a person's involvement

in life situations in relation to impairments, activities, health conditions and contextual
factors. Participation may be restricted in nature, duration and quality."

Since this manual is confined to visual impairment, its educational and psycho
social implications which influence both activity and
participation will be discussed
subsequent chapters.
L.3. BLINDNESS IN INDIA

Magnitude
Blindness in India is a
Madan Mohan in 1989, India
very large problem. According to a study y Dr.
has about 12 million blind conducte million
people with low vision. This means people and about 28.50
problems. that almost 4% of our population has serious Visual
 is
Lertain figures published by a German firm Bausch & Lomb said that the nunmber
actualy twice that large. However, the pattern of blindness is changing. For example the
eradication of small
pox and reduction in blindness caused by Vitamin 'A' deficiency na
comsiderably reduced
of school going age is
the blindness in children. As a result the number of blind children
steadily declining. The great majority of people who lose their vIsiO
are either in the
working age or past working age.
The Government of India began to take a formal interest in blindness with the

appointment in 1942 of a Joint Committee of the Central Advisory Boards of Education

and Health to investigate into the causes of blindness and to make recommendations tor
the welfare and rehabilitation of the blind. This Committee submitted its report to the
Government of India in 1944. This report became the foundation of the development of
services for the disabled in India.

Today the pattern of blindness is steadily changing. Eightyone percent blindrness in

India is the result of cataract. The blind
great majority of people who are are elderly.
The major causes of blindness in childhood are the following:
A) Deficiency of Vitamin A in early childhood,
B) Injuries, and
C) Infectious and certain genetic diseases like retinitis pigmentosa.

The major causes of blindness in middle and old age are: Cataract, Glauceoma and
The
Retinal detachment.
For
personal meaning of blindness varies from individual to
if child loses his vision he may have to adapt himself to
individual. example, a
way of receiving education. On the other hand, if a person loses his vision in middle age
a new

his financial security may be threatened. It will be more difficult for him to learn a new
occupation. But if a person suffers a severe visual loss in old age he may only need to be
taught independent living skills and provided opportunities of whole some recreation.

I.4. DEVELOPMENT OF
EDUCATION SPECIAL
AND
REHABILITATION OF THE BLIND OVER THE YEARS IN INDIA
The system of educating blind children in India was imported from Europe through
Christian Missionaries. The first school for the blind was set up at Amritsar in 1887. This
was followed by the establishment of three more schools before the close of the nineteenth
century. Gradually Indian voluntary agencies took over the task but the system of special
residential schools continued. Some state Governments gave very small adhoc grants to
these schools. Since special schools were
expensive to maintain the was smallcoverage
and limited to large urban centres. By 1947 undivided India had only about 32 schools for
the blind.
 education of the blind takoa
ken u
the
issue concerning 194 du
Indiaaring
lhe most important Bharati Braille. In
formulation of

the post-independence period was the

appointed by
the Governmentcof had
Since a
committee Ind
different Braille codes. Blinaness in lnaa, could not aon
eight
Officer Special Duty,
which c o n v e n e d several COnEe
on On a
Sir Clutha Mackenzie,
c o m m o n code, the matter
was referred to UNESCO
a noted linguist and
nferenc
cto
Dr. Suniki Kumar Chatterjee,
consider the issue. Finally,

Advani, himself blind, prepared

Bharati Braille in
by
the Iight of the recommendatio
the G o v e r n m e n t of India in 1951.
mmendations made
by UNESCO. Bharati Braille was accepted
used by Nepal, Bangladoas
the It is also being
country. sh
been in use throughout and
Bhutan.
In 1943 the Ministry of Defence established St. Dunstan's Hostel for the Indian War
1949 the training of blinded ex-servicemen
Blinded at Dehra Dun. By the end of en
Was
took over the institution and
completed and the Union Ministry of
Education enamed it
rena

as the Training Centre for the Adult Blind. In gradual stages this has developed into he
National Institute for the Visually Handicapped. This Institute functions as the apex bod
body
in the field of blindness.

Its main task is to undertake research and manpower development. It is running

several courses for the training of teachers of the blind at the primary and secondary level
It also manufactures tangible appliances for the blind and sells them at highly subsidized
prices. It has a large Braille printing plant and supplies Braille books up to the fifth class
free of charge. Other books are sold at highly subsidized prices.

The Institute also has a senior secondary school for blind and low vision
children, a
library of Braille books and a recording library. It is the first Institute in the country to
conduct an I.A.S. coaching course for blind students.
The country has about 250 special schools for the blind. A few are run by State
Governments, but the majority of them are run by
major national organizations for the blind in the
voluntary agencies. There are three

Association for the

country. These are: the National
Blind, Bombay; The All India
and the National Confederation of the Blind, New Delh,
Federation of the Blind, New Delhi.
at several
Braille printing facilities are availabie
places. The facilities
available at NIVH, Dehra Dun, Ramakrishna
are
Ashram, 24 Parganas, West Missione
Bengal, National Association for the Blind,
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya at Bombay and
Coimbatore are worth
In 1974 the Union noting.
Ministry of Social
integrate children with disabilities in Justice and Empowerment launched s
to a
heme

Sponsored scheme and the ordinary schools. This was trally

treated asa
the scheme Government of India
to State Governments and some pays hundred per cent t u r e on

N.G.Os. expen
Under this scheme about ousand nd
ten a
 c d e n have been placed in ordinary schools. Certain international agencies are
also
promoting a similar programme in different parts of the country.
he number of blind children is estimated at about 2 lakh. About 10% of these
children have access to education. We have still to go a long way to achieve the goal or
providing education to all blind children. The number of low vision children who0 are out
of school may be much larger because there are very few formal services available in India
for low vision children.

L.5. LEGISLATION

On 17th December 1971, the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi announced in
Parliament that she would
bring forward a law to reserve jobs for the disabled. Unfortunately
this promise did not materialized.

In 1980, a committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Shri Lal Advani to

a
suggest comprehensive law disability. Such draft law
on a submitted to Goverament
was
in 1981 which was declared as the international year of disabled persons. But tor some
reason the Government did not consider the 1981 draft.

In 1987, the Union Ministry of Welfare appointed another committee under the
chairmanship of Mr. Behr-ul-islam, a retired judge of the supreme court to undertake arn
exercise similar to the one undertaken in 1981. This committee
suggested a comprehensive
law and the report was discussed at a national seminar in 1993.

The Govt. introduced the disabled

person (equal opportunities, protection of rights
and full participation) bill in parliament. This bill was referred to the standing committee
on welfare but considerable time was being taken in its passage therefore certain disabled
activists Atal Bihari Vajpai, leader of the opposition. He promised to have the
met Shri
passed in one day by both the Houses of Parliament. This happened on 22nd December
bil
1995 and he President gave his assent on 1st January 1996. The act was notified on 7th
February 199%.

The act is divided in fourteen chapters.

Chapters II and IlI deal with the appointment
of coordination and executive committees at the centre and in the states. The
chapterXIIl
deals with the appointment of the chiet commissioner at the centre and commissioner in
each state.

Chapter IV deals with prevention and early detection. It casts the responsibility for
this tasks on state and local authorities.

Chapter V deals with

ducation. It promises free education in an
appropriate
environment to all children with disabilities until they attain the age of 18 years. This
chapter implicitly talks of child centered education. It refers to integration, special schools,
 special
teams
in rural areas, Nat.
National Cpun
of special.
through
chemes to
t o r m u l a t i o n

education the
education, emphasizes
non-formal
It also free of charge.
possibilities. children
Schools and other disabled
to
of this chapt
provide
books and
equipment
The major
provision pteri
impairoat 1
deals with
employment
each tor the visually , hearing
Chapter VI have to be
reserved
m a d e i n identified

post in all
classes ofemployment has to
be
posts An
serving blin
Reservation

locomotor impaired. institution

impaired and
measure
contained in Chapter X
is that any
Government.
This is to ensuro tother
mportant
licence from
the state y
disabled persons will need a
reasonable
s t a n d a r d s in providing educa n and
m a i n t e n a n c e of
and
of quality services
other services to disabled persons.
has not yet been
This is a very comprehensive act and its
implementation
equal to
the expectations aroused.
standard ot training offere
red to
Government realized that the
Earlier in 1992, the
to be desired. Therefore, the
teachers and other rehabilitation personnel left much govt
of Parliament in 1992 the
Rehabilitation Council of India. The Com.
Duncd
established by an act
is charged with the tasks of regulating training
of professionals in the fields of sDecial
education and rehabilitation. It is also expected to maintain a central register of qualified
people. The act provides for punishment of those who deliver serVIces to people with

disabilities without a recognized qualification.

L.6. INCLUSIVE AN INTEGRATED EDUCATION

This is relatively a new concept. Mass programmes of integrated education are
likely to be taken up by many States. In many blocks it is not easy to provide well equipped
resource rooms. It should be made the
centres for
responsibility special
of school to function as resource
equipment and trained teachers should go and assist the regular classroom
teacher or the resource teacher in
This will be
organising good programme of integrated education
a

particularly necessary in the case of low vision children in whose case

sophisticated equipment and environmental adaption
schools could also serve as
may be necessary. The special
resource centres
refresher courses. by organising periodically orientation
0
L.7. SOME ISSUES

Education of blind children

of blind started with
children attend
special schools. special schools. Even today the jority
ma
However at a
that ail national UNESCOconference at Salamanca,
child with a governments should be asked to Spain in 1994, a decision was aken

disability.
What is the provide inclusive education every
meaning of inclusive education? t
This
generally
means
that for the entire time the disabled child participate in every activity in a regular classroor
The regular classroom teacher may receive assistance from a specialist but the child is not

taken out of the classroom.

The integrated education model is somewhat different. Various models are in

The most common is the resource room model. In this model a school reserves a special
vogue
room to serve as a resource room. It has all the needed equipment like a Braille slate, a

brailler, taylor frame, abacus, raised maps, etc. There resource teacher who
a an is a
has
received special training in the education of the visually impaired. He takes the visually
impaired child to the resource room and teaches him the use of special equipment
orientation and mobility or other things that he has missed in the regular classroom.

But since the population of blind children scattered it is not possible to provide a
resource room and a resource teacher in every school. In such circumstances a cluster of a
schools or villages is chosen and the itinerant teacher travels to each school in the cluster
and gives such instruction to the blind child as is possible'.
There is a considerable controversy about the role of special schools. One suggestion
being made is that the special school should function as a resource centre providing the
following services:
-
Access to special equipment.
- Orientation of general teachers.

- Giving special assistance to blind children with special needs.

Creating awareness of the potential of blind children among the teaching

community as well as the community at large.

Supplying Braille literature.

- Offering assistance at examinations

These are but a few functions which a special school functioning as a resource centre
could perform. Many more will emerge as the system begins to operate
L.8. BLIND PERSONS WITH ASSOCIATED DISABILITIES
A blind child
adult may have many associated disorders. Here
or we will deal with
only a few common disorders.

Blindness with Intellectual Retardation

With the
disappearance of small pox a major cause of child blindness has ceased to
exist. Malnutrition is quite rampant in this country. About one-third of babies born in
India under
are
weight. Low weight in babies is liable intellectual retardation.

Many blind children in special schools do seem to exhibit

retardation. This makes their education more symptoms of intellectual
complex.
A major educationallimitation of blindness is restriction on the range and
of experiences. Compensatory education may in variety
make
accentuated by intellectual retardation. Therefore itpart up this deficit which is
is necessary to
frequent exposure to concrete experiences. give these children
It may not be easy for these children to learn Braille. Giant
dot Braille may be
helpful. However much greater stress need to be
may placed on recorded materials.
The following general principles should be born in mind:
- Frequent repetition.

Breaking every tasks in small bits.

Holding the attention of the child by
making the lessons, short and interesting
Presenting only concrete facts.

12
 Show him every
object
-

in its entirety and slowly that he can builda

mental image.
so
clea
-

Speak to him in vocabulary that he understands.

Try to
emphasise transfer of learning from
-

one situation to another.

Tactile Dyslexia
A recent
phenomenon observed in many schools for the blind is that a large number
of blind children are unable to read Braille. The factors causing this condition are stll
unclear. But
perhaps more intensive sensory training and readiness programmes may
enabie these children to
acquire working mastery over Braille. Recorded materials could
be more extensive used. Sometimes
presentation of material both through the tactile and
auditory together facilitate learning. The child should be allowed to progress at his own
pace.

Deaf Blind Children

The education of this doubly handicapped child offers a very unique challenge to
the teacher. With modern
hearing aids many deaf blind children may be able to acquire
some workable speech and language. It may be necessary to develop finger spelling a
system for Indian languages. Some signs which can be felt could also be used in conjunction
with Braille. The child could be encouraged to place his finger on the throat and lips of the
speaker so that by perceiving the vibrations and lip movements of the speaker he may
learn to comprehend some speech. A combination of methods used is called total
communication.

The most difficult thing to achieve is association between a word and the object it
stands for. This is clear from Helen Keller's life. One day suddenly she realized that the
cold fluid flowing under the tap was called water. This change her entire life.

Blind Children with Cerebral Palsy

Such children may have muscular incoordination, difficulty in walking, standing
and eating. Their articulation may be faulty. They may also have some
hearing problems.
The specific teaching techniques to be used will depend large on disabilities. But it may
be necessary for this child to use special chairs, eating utensils or other mobility aids.
Learning of Braille may present special difficulties. It may therefore be an advantage to
use recorded materials.

But the need for intensive sensory training and exposure to every day lite experiences
cannot be over emphasized.

13
 VISUAL IMPAIRMEN'
ASPECTs OF
PSYCHO-SOCIAL
A.II.

I1.1. PREJUDICE
of lire. r o r example man.
negative reactions in every walk nany
Blind people encounter

in useful
work. A number of people ha
blind people cannotengage
pCople believe that a conversation with a blind person.
Even in a shop,
the shopkeepor
itticulty in
initiating demonstrated this
in
and not the blind client.
BBC had beautifully
address the guide
may This serial vividly explained
the difficulty man
their serial called, "does he take sugar?"
to blind person.
people have in
talking directly a

irrational and consistent reaction in a given situation. For

A prejudice is a negative will
Cxample when sighted person who is prejudice meets
a
a blind person he
always
react in a negative way. This reaction is quite often culturally programmed and is very

resistant to change.
A serious effort has to be made to eradicate negative reactions to blindness. Blind
people live in the community has to be educated to change negative into positive reactions.
How do we do this? Perhaps the best way is to encourage the development of warm
personnel friendship between a blind and sighted person. Teachers can do this by
appropriate classroom management.

The media both print and electronic have an important role to play. They have to
project a positive image of blind people. Folk arts and even religious sermons could
include references to noted blind and writers.
poets These names will be available in
Hindi well in other Indian
as as
languages.
I1.2. FUNCTIONAL LIMITATIONS OF BLINDNESS AND
LOW VIsION

According to Lowenfeld the most

important limitations of blindness is a restriction
on the range and
variety of the blind person's experiences. An immediate
this is that a blind child or adult has
to be
implication of
consciously told or situations where such
experiments can be felt. Incidental learning does not usually take
blind child is going to school by bus he is not place. To illustrate,
aware of the dresses or the
posters hoardings
or and the walls of the people in the bus,
be aware of the buildings he passes
by. Infact he not even
objects in his school compound. A conscious effort has to be may
him various things. made to show

Here, differences between

sight and touch have to be kept in mind. A
even a low vision child sighted or
may look at a table and its
grasp size and shape in one
glance. But
 the blind child cannot
do so. He has to be shown the
mental image of the table. table bit by bit so that he builts a clear
Thus, this is the essence the process of orientation.
Another limitation is
cannot walk but mobility. Restriction on mobility is not because the child
on

because of the
environment. Even low vision
difficulty in developing a clear mental image ot his
children with peripheral, loss of vision or losses in the
upper and lower part of the eye
may have difficulty both in orientation and mobility. The
precise problems will depend on the nature and
extent of the loss. To illustrate, colour
blindness may make it difficult for
a low vision to detect a red
expose him to person light
and this may
a
dangerous situation.
IL.3. EFFECTS OF BLINDNESs
ON PERSONALITY
Personality is the some total of the psycho physical dimensions within the
which determine his individual
unique adjustmentlife. Since loss of vision has
to
it cannot but influence the pervasive effects,
occurs in life the more
personality of the blind child or adult. The earlier loss of vision
profound or the effects on
personality.
When a blind childborn the entire family is
is
This interferes with the plunged into a paralysing shock.
development of close relationship between the mother and the
child, such a relationship is the very foundation
of the
blind child.
personality development of the

I14. MANNERISM

By mannerism is meant meaningless and purposeless movements of the

students are often seen body. Blind
pocking their eyes, pocking their nose, shaking their legs and making
other
meaningless movements. Cutstorth, an American psychologist, had described them
as blindisms.

However, a study conducted by the National Institute for the Visually

Dehradun under Shri Lal Advani found that mannerism did exist even Handicapped,
among sighted
students of public schools. However, the general conclusion drawn was that
mannerism
were not the direct
consequence of blindness but rather of frustration and lack of occupation
which is quite often found among blind children.
Reducing frustration and providing
useful
Occupation tend to diminish the prevalence of manneristic behaviour.

II.5. OPERANT CONDITIONING

The theory of
operant conditioning was developed by an American psychologist.
Skinner used reward and punishment to
extinguish undesirable behaviour or encourage

15
 A word of approval
need not be physical. al
behaviour. The reinforce
socially desirable word of disaPproval may be quitite
good
a
reinforcer. Similarly sharp
may s e r v e as a very
effective.
could be used in
is a behaviour modification technique. It
Operant conditioning modification may be specially
many schools for the blind.
This technique of behaviour
often have assOCiated behaviour
effective with intellectually retarded blind children who

problem.

DEVELOPMENT OF VISUALLY DISABLED

IL.6. CONCEPT
CHILDREN AND ADULTS
The concept usually means a class name. For instance a chair may be of many

without arms and But

kinds. It could be round, it could be with arms or
have certain common characteristics. When such a word is used it refers to class of objects
so on.
all chairs
and subsumed under the word chair.

The child classifies these characteristics by continual exposure One of the limitations
of blindness is that it limits the range and variety of experiences is exposure to objects
from time to time
impresses the characteristics is the child's wind. Piaget calls this process
seriation.

One
reason for this is that while
sight is a gestalt sense, touch is analytical sense. A
blind child must explore and object bit to built the correct mental in
page on the basis of
which he identifies the
objects.
Moreover blind children and adults must have a
great deal of incidental information.
For example, if a blind
person travels by bus he does not observe the advertisements on
the walls, dresses of the passengers and other incidental information. It is not possible for
parents or teachers to give all the information on these
or adult.
things completely to a blind child

Emotional Development
The advice given
teacher is that as far
to a

optimum number of experiences show him the entirepossible give the blind child or adult
acorrect mental
image. What are the
object bit by bit so that he can develop
grows his social development
symptoms? The child
may throw up tantrums. As he
affected. He may show more particularly his relations with
peers and
aggression than usual. He could siblings may be
symptoms. In some cases he may also show withdrawal
indulge
symptoms may be indicative of dipper
in over
compensatory behaviour. All these
personality problems.
I.7. ATTITUDE OF PARENTS, SIBLINGS AND PEERS

Acceptance
This is the best
possible attitude.
Denial

Parents may deny the disability of the child and exert pressure on him to do things
which are
beyond his capacity.
Disguised Rejection
This usually takes the shape of discrimination at home. The child may not be given
the same treatment as other brothers and sisters. This causes mental agony.

Outright Rejection
In such cases the blind child may be givenaway to agang of beggars or left to fend
for himself in a residential institution for the blind.

Over Protection
This is the phenomenon most commonly seen in affluent parents. The mother feels
a sense of guilt and shame and does every thing for the child, destroying his initiative and
autonomy. Such a child may become totally dependent even in the development of the
survival skills.

Brothers and sisters may also have negative reactions. They may not play with him,
read to him or take him out. All this give rise to open and distinct resentment which may
occasionally explode in out burst of anger or protest.

IL.8. SOCIAL ATTITUDES

The main attitude of society towards the blind could be summed up by the word
'shrinking away'. It is usualy very difficult for a sighted person to interact with a blind
persons except after considerable interaction has taken place. A variety of reasons can be
given. One reason is that in the absence of eye contact is not easy for a sighted person
immediately to interact with blind person with a sense of intimacy. The potential of people
with disability for education and employment is not usually appreciated. Employers
prefer
to have a person with sight and considerable persuasion is needed to convinee them that
blind person can be a good worker. Similarly it is by no means easy for a blind child to be

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admitted into school for sighted children. There is need for creating a great deal of awareness

of the potential of work disabled people can do. Without this it is not easy to integrate

them in ordinary school or place them in open employment.