ABSTRACT
Blindness is a severe handicap. Loss of this dominant sense requires use of the other four senses, which gives a less integrated impression than sight. Enhancement of the tactile and auditory senses, however, combined with considerable ingenuity, often leads to attainments that most sighted people would not predict. The term 'visually-handicapped' covers the two medical categories of 'blind' and 'partially-sighted'. Much learning is dependent on vision. Partially-sighted children go through a difficult process of discovery, diagnosis and assessment to determine whether they need special education either in a special school or in a mainstream school with additional support services. Communication problems are highlighted in integrated schools, and in further and higher education where students have to produce essays and scripts for teachers who may have little knowledge of Braille. Developing communication skills is of prime importance for visually-handicapped people, and has become even more essential as technological advances have resulted in rapid and inexpensive methods of reproducing text.
