ABSTRACT

Following the publication of the Vernon Report (1972), the Warnock Report in 1978 and the Education Act 1981, educational provision in Britain for the visually impaired has undergone major changes. The Warnock Report acknowledged that children with sensory impairments frequently have special educational needs and that these can be met by providing a range of educational support for them. For instance, some children may always need the security of the ‘special’ school while others may have their needs met by being supported in mainstream by either a full-time teacher or a non teaching assistant or perhaps in a unit attached to a mainstream school. The Warnock Committee also recommended that the categories of visual impairment, blindness and partial sight, along with other categories of handicap, were no longer relevant as other ‘educational’ factors were far more important in relation to the educational placement of such children.