Working with a blind student for the first time in your career can be very daunting for SENCO's, Teachers and TA's in mainstream schools. Vision impaired and blind students are low incidence in education but can be very high need and you could go your whole career without ever having the privilege of this experience. And it is an amazing privilege.
So, the initial worries and thoughts around getting the provision right for them is justified. Often the student will require specialist teaching and learning in addition to the curriculum subjects. For example braille, assistive technology or mobility training as a minimum. The thought of adapting the curriculum and creating accessible tactile resources when you have never done this before can feel overwhelming. As a peripatetic service, we support these settings and students and train them over time with how to make accessible tactile and braille resources for all curriculum subjects - as well as delivering specialist teaching interventions with the student using the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairments to guide provision across the whole student experience.
The thing is, like all students, blind or vision impaired young people are different, have different preferences for how they like to learn and have different levels of tactile skills - so what works well for one student may not work for another. One student may be able to interpret a tactile diagram in Science whilst another student may require 3D models to understand the same concept.
The key message I always like to stress to educational settings is: you can't get it wrong, it will either work or it won't. And if it works, great, repeat it and if it doesn't don't worry, just try it in a different way.
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