Surviving school as a visually impaired person

Hello everyone and welcome back to My Blurred World.

I hope you’re all doing well.

Today’s post is all about surviving school as a visually impaired person (VIP).

Surviving school can be tricky no matter who you are but navigating the experience as a vision impaired/disabled person is a whole other kettle of fish. Today, I want to share my experience in mainstream education with you all and talk you through the good, the bad and everything in-between.

This post looks set to be quite a long one so feel free to grab a drink and a snack before we begin 🙂

If you read my ‘End of an era’ post last month, you will know that I finished my A Level exams in June and I will be moving on to the world of work later this year having already secured my first job. Given the fact that I have now finished my time in education, I thought now would be a good a time as any to share my experience with you.

I attended mainstream school throughout my time in education and although it was difficult to cope with people’s attitudes  and the inaccessibility of some aspects of learning at times, I managed to make the most of my time and worked hard to achieve the grades I desired.

My aim here is to highlight some of the challenges I faced during my time in education in the hope it helps someone else who might be in a similar situation but, as always, I’m striving to strike a balance by introducing some of the positives too because there were plenty along the way.

I’m going to focus on my time in secondary school in this post since I’m fresh out of that setting but if you’d like a rundown of my experience in primary school, there will always be room in future features.

Let’s dive straight in.

I’d say that one of the main challenges I faced at school was making friends. I often felt intimidated by people because of their lack of understanding of vision impairment and, despite my QTVI’s (Qualified Teacher of Vision Impairment) efforts to remedy that judgement by providing some awareness lessons, compassion and empathy was quite hard to come by.

People often switched the way they spoke when. interacting with me which knocked my confidence, making it even harder for me to go up to new people and make new friends. This fear of people’s perceptions coupled with shyness meant that I found it really difficult to find kinship with people.

That’s not to say that I didn’t have any friends. Connections I had since primary school were still going strong but with those people being in different year groups to me, I often felt isolated in class and the sixth form block was a no-go zone for me for the first year due to not having anyone in there who I could spend my time with.

The friendships I formed back in my first year of secondary school felt exciting and I hoped they would last but again, lack of understanding of my impairment and my inability to communicate some of the challenges it presented due to still trying to wrap my head around it myself corrupted some of those connections.

They would often think that I was ignoring them if I walked past their table in the canteen and failed to recognise or listen when I tried to explain that I couldn’t see them. These attitudes created a divide and I found myself drifting apart from those people due to this breakdown in communication along with other factors.

One of the main things that helped me ‘survive’ school was the support I received. I had a teaching assistant (TA) who adapted work into my preferred format whether it be large print or braille, and she also came with me to lessons incase the teacher would write things on the white board which would often happen. I also had a QTVI who would typically visit once a week to make sure everything was running smoothly and that I had all the support and equipment I needed. She is also the one I have to thank for teaching me braille.

 My TA and QTVI always made sure that everything was in place and I can’t thank them enough for all the support they gave me. I know that my experience in education would have been extremely difficult without them.

My TA worked extremely hard to make sure that all materials were adapted for me in the right format but some teachers didn’t always remember to give her the work beforehand, sometimes assuming that it could be done in a matter of minutes when, in reality, it could take hours or even days to adapt. This was a barrier that I faced far too often and happened even in sixth form. Adapting work is not a simple process and it often put a lot of stress on my TA as she had to rush to make sure I had work to do in the class otherwise I’d fall behind. I often found myself having to sit in class waiting for my work to be adapted whilst my fellow pupils were reading or writing away.

I suffered a major deterioration in my eyesight when I was in Year 11, just in time for my GCSE’s, which resulted in me completing all of my exams through the medium of braille. I had previously learned braille in Welsh and English but had never completed my exams in braille before. I took french as a GCSE subject which meant that I had to start learning the language in braille which proved difficult as, in a way, it meant that I had to learn two new languages. But not being one to back down from a challenge, I tried my best and although the deterioration was hard to cope with at times, I tried to maintain a positive attitude and I think that this is what helped me get through  Year 11. I was very happy with the GCSE grades that I achieved which ranged from A’s to B’s.

Sixth form was a completely different story and I found it difficult to hold onto that positivity. I was drifting away from some of my friends, the Year 12 and Year 13 stomping ground that was the sixth form block felt very daunting and inaccessible to me and it was a year of many setbacks in my personal life. My anxiety levels skyrocketed and I experienced countless panic attacks due to the isolation I felt so strongly at the time.

I was also diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME and had to stay home for over half of my first year in sixth form. Lack of understanding was a huge factor in some of the negativity that surrounded my absence which also contributed to my mounting anxiety. It’s safe to say that I was hard on myself during that year so I tried to adopt a different approach when it came to entering Year 13. It was by no means easy but I made it through with the support of my family and friends and my final exams came to an end in June

I haven’t received my A Level results yet but whatever they might be, I am happy with the way my exams went. I did experience further deterioration in my eyesight as my last exams approached which was hard to ignore but I tried my best to concentrate on my work and, as I said, I’m happy with the way they went. However, grades aren’t everything so whatever they might be, I can look back and be proud of how I approached my last year and that’s all that matters. Although, I would really love those A’s and B’s!

I think that showing kindness and empathy to myself is one of the most valueable and important lessons I’ve learned during my time in education. My experience might be coloured with a lot of barriers and negativity but there have been positives along the way.

That’s just a small glimpse of my experiences in education as a vision impaired person. If you’re a fellow disabled student and finding things tricky to navigate, please know that you’re not alone. I became a lot better at voicing my feelings as I approached the final stages of my time in school and I learned how important and valuable that communication is, whether it’s with a TA, teachers or family and friends.

If you’re a fellow VIP or a parent of a VI child who’s worried about navigating education, please reach out. You are not alone.