ABSTRACT
The four studies described below are based on interviews conducted in 1977 by the National Foundation for Educational Research as part of a study of physically handicapped graduates. Although the four people concerned have all attended the same Further Education college for the physically handicapped to take ‘A’ levels and prepare themselves for university or polytechnic, their earlier experiences of education have been very different. Josh spent all his educational career before university in special schools or colleges, while Ray was a pupil in a normal comprehensive for three years until he found he could no longer cope. Anna attended a residental school for the visually handicapped and entered the special FE college as a mature student, while Anita only became handicapped at sixteen due to a motorcycle accident and therefore received a normal integrated education. The interviews reveal various similarities and some important differences between the four in their attitudes toward special schooling, in their experiences of coping with the academic and social life of a university or polytechnic, and in the reactions they have encountered from able-bodied students.
