Blindness and education

The Blind and Visually Impaired is a branch of special education and deals with special educational and didactic- methodological issues of upbringing and education of people who have a visual impairment due to special educational needs.

In addition, field of expertise in related disciplines eg related to the visually impaired diagnostic and psychological aspects as well as ophthalmology.

The term visual impairment is commonly used as an umbrella term for two terms blindness and visual impairment. It implies the visual impairment that severe visual impairment and blindness. With the impact of severe low vision, both the Blind and the Visually Impaired is concerned, with the blind didactics focused on the secondary senses ( touch, hearing, etc.). The visually impaired didactics tried to use by appropriate adaptations to the "residual sense seeing" as far as possible.

In addition to the reference to medical and ophthalmic definitions that describe the functional limitations of vision in general, the Blind and Visually Impaired is based on factors that go beyond the visual abilities (visual acuity, field of vision, light and color image). Here in the description of functional vision can also be found outside visual stimuli ( color, contrast, lighting) and the individual conditions (cognition, perception, mental and physical constitution ) of the concerned attention.

History

After initial efforts in the 18th century ( Valentin Haiiy, founder of the first institution for the blind in the world, in Paris in 1784 ), the blind pedagogy established in the 19th century. Through the establishment of different schools for the blind (Johann Wilhelm Klein 1804 in Vienna, Johann August Zeune 1806 in Berlin, etc. ) to create a framework of an institutionalized blind education in German-speaking countries, which were underpinned school practically and theoretically by first textbooks (eg, by JW Klein, textbook for Instruction of the blind, 1819).

The first century of institutionalized blind education was marked by the struggle to establish a uniform system of writing. Haiiy, Zeune and Klein taught their students in the high pressure, a raised writing, which should make it accessible for the blind seer of the writing system. Problems faced so on, not only in reading. Only a fraction of the blind were able to acquire a manuscript that was understandable to outsiders. Based on a secret writing by Charles Barbier based on points developed Louis Braille in 1825, a 6-point font system that exactly one letter in black font zuwies a point combination. Despite its advantages for written communication among the blind braille was rejected among the leading blind educators (see above) for a long time because of its disintegrating action. In German-speaking countries, it took until 1888 until Braille prevailed as the only writing system.

Initially it was planned to detect the formation ability of blind children, most of which were taught from the age of 10 in the so-called blind model institutions. These elementary school teachers should take intuition how these children can be supported.

Until the beginning of the 20th century blind and visually impaired students were taught together only by the criteria for the blind. Reason was a hypothesis JW Klein, after which the residual vision must be preserved. Only then slowly set up a separate promotion of the visually impaired by the formation of external classes to the blind and institutions during the 1960s and 70s by the formation of independent visually impaired schools.

Study

The study looks just like the Blind and Visually Impaired in itself, exposed to changes. On an increase of visually impaired children with multiple disabilities the training must be stronger, including through. Didactic principles in the field of spiritual and multiple disability education must experience a higher weighting.

Today, the blind and the visually impaired pedagogy pedagogy exist in the school and university context of equal status. Seminars are usually offered across and should lead to a broader perspective.

The study of the Blind and Visually Impaired is in Germany at five universities possible: at the Humboldt University in Berlin, at the Technical University of Dortmund, at the University of Hamburg and at the Pedagogical University (PH) Heidelberg. At the University of Marburg started in the winter semester 2010/2011 service training for professionals in the field of " Blind and Visually Impaired " in cooperation with the German Institute for the Blind ( blista ) as a Master's degree.

The students have access to specialized libraries for pedagogy, didactics and psychology as well as diagnosis of blind and visually impaired. The training facilities are equipped with teaching aids collections that contain both a historic and current materials; Workshops where specific materials can be produced in professional quality for partially sighted people and to which blind and visually impaired students and students of the Blind and Visually Impaired can practice in computer-assisted reading and writing jobs.

The course content is divided into compartments special and school pedagogy ( didactics), psychology, diagnostics. In addition to these study subjects, the students of the Blind and Visually Impaired ( inter alia Ophthalmology) occupy.