ABSTRACT
At the age of sixteen or very soon after young visually-impaired people, in common with their sighted peers, are required to make a transition from childhood to adulthood. This transition happens at a stage in a young person's development when biochemical change and the shift from expectations of dependency to responsibility mean that the young person feels least able to cope personally with that process. Many make the transition successfully. However, with such a combination of destabilising factors facing the young visually-impaired person, to say that the transition process is challenging would be to grossly understate the situation. Dealing with transition has rarely been a high priority in further education and the needs of visually-impaired students in this process have received even less attention in an era when numbers have become all-important. The challenges facing a young visually-impaired person making the transition to further education are legion and should not be underestimated.
