This study explored the experience of disability as recounted by school aged, visually impaired adolescents. The primary aim was to explore the manner in which these adolescents thought about, understood and coped with their disability. A second aim explored the extent to which participants’ experiences mirrored those reported in the literature. The design of the study was qualitative with an orientation toward social constructionism. Nine partially sighted and seven blind adolescents comprised the two cohorts of participants who participated in the study. One of the most notable findings supported the argument that disability is a socially constructed phenomenon. Some insights, drawn from psychoanalysis, were also found to be useful. Other findings, a critique of the study, and suggestions for future research are also provided. One of the most important of these involves evaluating the negative and positive consequences of inclusive education.

Folklore has long held that blind people gain, relative to normal people, in their sensitivity to other sensory modalities. Although supported only by equivocal evidence, this position probably first appeared in mythology in early Greek literature. Oedipus Rex was attributed greater awareness of people’s nature after this blindness. It is still a prevalent myth in contemporary American culture, to the extent that it appears in “Little Orphan Annie.” Experimental attempts at verification of this point began several years ago, but it remains a controversial issue. Literature on the topic can be divided up into several content areas: the relevance of blindness to auditory sensitivity, the relevance of blindness to tactile sensitivity, the developmental effect of blindness and central vs. peripheral blindness and it affects perception. Studies sampled there represent these content areas.