The community needs to be educated about having a positive attitude towards blind.

They should be treated as equal to sighted individual in almost all respects. Effects of early blindness on personality Personality is treated as the total quality of the individual's behaviour as it is revealed in his thought, action, expression and attitude. Among these, the attitude forms the base for all other components. n case of visually disabled children, their attitude towards the world and the vice versa plays an important role in the ma!ing up of the self. Parents are the most important people in the life of the sighted as well as the visually disabled child.' They are generally ignorant about the implications of blindness on the personality development of child. n most places, parents also li!e to render maximum assistance to the visually disabled children. "ut their unawareness of right methodology !eeps them away from possible assistance. #chools and organisations of the visually disabled children should offer guidance and counselling programmes to the families of these children. "y doing so the parents would be able to appreciate their role in assisting the child to get ready for his total rehabilitation. #o that, the blind child is self$sufficient, economically independent and thus transforms into an emotionally stable adult. This in turn can help the child to have a normal personality without any complexes and low feeling. t is generally thought that the family is the foremost non$formal agency in the rehabilitation process of visually disabled individuals. Education of visually impaired %ouis "raille's invention of "raille alphabet system in &'() provided a tremendous impetus to education of visually impaired children throughout the world. The education of visually impaired children in residential schools is an accepted model all over world. ) The first school for the blinds in ndia was started by *hristian +issionaries in &'', in Amritsar. There are (-- .#pecial #chools. in ndia which serve approximately (-,--- visually impaired school going children. After gaining primary education from these schools those children can be placed in regular schools in the general education system. This system of education i.e. first braille from special blind school and then learning from general school in the presence of regular teacher as well as resource teacher is !nown as integrated system of education. t aims at normali/ing the life and education of visually impaired children in the least restrictive environment along with sighted children in general schools. The integrated system of education has been functioning world over since the second half of )-th century. The programme has various models for service delivery0 a. b. c. d. e. 1esource +odel, tinerant +odel, *o$operative +odel, *ombined +odel, 2ual +odel.

a) Resource Model

n this education plan the child is enrolled in a regular class with .regular teacher.. 3ithin the campus special teacher !nown as .1esource Teacher. is also available in addition to regular teacher. 1egular teacher assumes ma4or responsibility of visually impaired child's teaching in general programme. 1esource teacher is responsible for ma!ing the child learn by special techniques and s!ills which he is not understanding from regular teacher.

b) Itinerant Model

t is the same as above except that the difficulty of the child is ta!en care of by itinerant teacher 5visiting6 instead of constantly available 1esource teacher.

c) Combined Model

also !nown as resource$cum$itinerant +odel. The child reading in a regular school has a 1esource teacher for ta!ing care of routine difficulties in regular class. 7or special difficulties he is helped by the tinerant teacher 5visiting teacher6.

d) Cooperative Model

This educational plan is reverse of the resource model. 8isually impaired child is enrolled in a special school with a special 5resource6 teacher in a special room for learning. 7rom here he goes to the regular class room for a part of his day in order to 4oin the mainstream of normal regular !ind of learning with sighted children. #pecial teacher is here responsible for his programme in co$operation with regular teacher.

e) Dual Teaching Model

n this educational plan. 1egular teacher is also trained enough to be resource teacher. n fact, ndia needs this type of educational plan for visually impaired children. "oth residential schools and integrated schools play a complementary role in the education system of visually impaired children.

Devices for Learning

a) Braille n both integrated and special schools the blind children are taught through braille. n this system the letters are formed by a combination of raised dots to a cell. The area of "raille cells is , mm x (., mm. The cell consist of six dots and can be arranged into ,( combinations or characters. "raille reading is slower than print reading. b) Writing devices "raille slates are used for writing "raille. 3hile writing the child has to punch dots downwards from right to left and then turn the paper and read from left to right by feeling upward impressions of the dots. #tylus is used for punching the dots in "raille cells. "raille type writers are also used where in the typing gives direct upward impression of dots. c) Mathematical devices "lind children can also learn mathematics by using devices such as abacus and Taylor frame for doing calculations in arithmetics. 9eometrical devices are also used to understand shapes.

Au iliar! "ervices for Blinds

:nli!e general education, the education of visually impaired children demands more material, more equipment, individuali/ed instructions, supplementary reading material and assistance of volunteers. #ome of the useful auxiliary services are as follows a) Brailling "ervice# That is transcribing a boo!, chapter of a boo!, part of the chapter print to braille print for the benefit of the blinds. #ervice though very useful is not easily available. b) Reader and Recording "ervice# "raille reading is slower than print reading. 7or learning a blind has to do a lot of braille reading in order to match his sighted class mates. n order to increase the learning momentum by reading, two alternatives emerge i.e. live readers and recorded services. t is difficult to acquire live readers always. ;owever, copies of recordings of audio cassettes for listening to the lesson can be provided easily. Technolog! and visual impairment# "oo!s are now available on computer dis!s which allow to increase the si/e of print 5low vision children6 or to switch from print to voice which spea! out the print 57<1 T;E "% =26. These computer boo!s may soon become as abundant as conventional ones. *omputer technology is beneficial in the field of education also. *omputer assisted instructions has helped in teaching many s!ills and vocational s!ills e.g, computer programming telecommunications to persons wit h visual impairment. The advantages of micro computer technology are most apparent in the area of writing. The written products of many blind students can be greatly improved when they use word processing features available with computers. The blind>low vision students can !eep a copy printed in large type for themselves and standard type for their teachers and class mates. The cost is critical factor in all these advances. Lo$ %ision Children# There are programmes to educate, rehabilitate, and integrate the blind with normal population. "ut there is a group of children between blinds and sighted children having low vision who are at a disadvantaged position. *onfusion, whether they should read print or learn and use of "raille. n addition these low vision children did not have the encouragement in the past to use residual vision. People thought more use of defective eye would cause further damage to vision. Evidently this has been disproved. This new concept of maximum use of remaining sight encouraged the development of many !inds of optical aids i.e. magnifiers, low vision aids 5%8A6. "uppliers of L%A# a6 ndia optics and scientific wor!s, ;ills 1oad, Ambala *ants. b6 Prince <ptical 3or!s "$&-), 9.T. ?arnal 1oad, ndustrial Area $ 2elhi$ ((. c6 +>s #hah and #hah, ), 1ussell #treet, *alcutta d6 "alliwala and ;omi Pvt. %td. ,&@ Aaggan =ath, #han!ar #eth +arg "ombay, e6 +>s Towa <ptics ))(, =ew <!hla ndustrial Estate$ Phase$&, 2elhi. Rehabilitation of Blind# There has been an evolutionary process throughout history in changing attitudes about the blind and blindness. About &,--- years bac! the first attitude was of disregard and re4ection, isolation and abuse. About a &-- years bac! the attitude changed to pity and benevolence. =owadays there is a positive attitude towards the blinds. =ow we expect them to lead a life in which they have an opportunity for education, to become economically and physically independent. f we teach the child proper compensatory s!ills for learning, he is li!ely to be a self sufficient economically independent and emotionally stable adult. The education and rehabilitation of programmes for visually impaired children are growing in large numbers and the independence of these children is assured in every respect. A blind person needs following types of 1ehabilitation0 a) Medical Rehabilitation# "y providing %8A many visually impaired can benefit from their residual useful vision. b) Training and ps!cho&social rehabilitation# t is an important aspect. Each blind should be assured and made to feel that they are equally useful and not inferior to sighted person. Their training should include0 mobility training , long cane, training in living #!ills $ bathing, washing etc. c) 'ducational Rehabilitation d) %ocational Rehabilitation # Taught simple occupations li!e candle ma!ing, chal! ma!ing, chair canning etc. however, these have lost their economic value nowadays. Efforts should be made to discover new economically useful occupations not requiring any use of sight. 7or example engineering occupations which can be performed by blinds, assembly wor!, milling machine, drilling machine, and capstan lathe etc. <ccupations li!e dairy farming, animal husbandry, poultry !eeping. mudha ma!ing. rope ma!ing in rural area by the blind. 'mplo!ment# Educated blind can see! employment in all gouts. where there is reservation for visually handicapped. 9ovt. of ndia has set up @B special employment exchanges in different states for visually handicappe d(. A blind can pursue a variety of 4obs in the computers after the development of voice synthesi/er which when loaded will spea! what is being typed. Telephone booths are being frequently allotted to the blind by the govt. &B voluntary rehabilitation centres set up by the +inistry of %abour and employment assess the disabled, give them some training and try to place them in suitable employment. The +inistry of 1ural 2evelopment has reserved (C vacancies for the disabled in the integrated rural development programme as well as in all other poverty alleviation programmes.

Concessions to the Blind# Travel concession by rail $ D-$BDC, by air 5D-C are provided to the blind. @ 6. P E T 2epartment 7ree postage of literature for blind concessional telephone connections to the blinds. *ustom exemption on "raille paper, audio cassettes for blinds, *onveyance allowance for blind employee, DC of basic to the maximum of 1s. &-->$ per month. ncome tax concession. Award of dealership>agencies of oil company. &C 4obs fixed in govt. fixed for blind. #cholarships to the disabled. Awards for visually handicapped.