Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Date of Award

5-16-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

College of Education

First Advisor

Andrea Kayne

Abstract

This article is an autoethnography of my experiences in blind education. Covering the years from 1962-1977, this autoethnography compares my two years in public school education as a person with a visual impairment to my 12 years at a boarding school specifically designed for the visually impaired. The IDEA framework for disability education was developed in 1964 and I spent my early years of blindness educated under a program of that design with itinerant special education teachers. In 1965, I was admitted into the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired where I spent the rest of my years of K-12 education. Though the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework was first implemented in schools in 2003, my experience shows ISVI was an early adopter of many of the tenets of that framework. In this article, I assess the differences between learning models at public schools and blind residential schools and how they impacted my education and my overall development as a self-sustaining visually impaired adult. I also assess the potential ramifications for future disability education programs for the visually impaired.

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