Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / [That a dramatic metamorphosis has taken place is evident when one compares the early aims of the instruction of the blind and the purposes for which the blind are educated today. The provision of asylum for a dependent and isolated minority, once a primary function, has given way to the current emphasis on providing the blind with the means of participating in and contributing to the society of which they are an integral part. Hathaway and Lowenfeld point out that residential schools now follow, for the most part, the grade-by-grade courses offered in public schools. Ashcroft noted that for the first time in the education of the blind in this country, a century and a quarter, a majority of blind students were registered in public schools as opposed to residential schools in 1959. Trosch found that more than 915 blind college students were registered in 415 colleges and universities in the United States in 1957. This change has not come about without some difficult moments both for the educator and for the blind child, but it has also brought some additional insights. After weathering the initial period of cautious evaluation, the classroom teacher soon recognizes that the blind child is first a child, with all the needs of children his or her own age, and secondly blind, a condition which entails some additional needs. To continue this analysis one step further, it might be said that the Braille reader is first a reader, with all the obstacles to be hurdled which all beginning readers must face, and secondly a user of Braille, a medium with its own peculiar perceptual characteristics. The purpose of this test is to develop individual diagnostic tests of Braille letter- and word-knowledge. It is hoped that through the use of these instruments, the teacher of the blind will be able to set more specific goals than are now possible, when teaching beginning reading or when undertaking remedial instruction.]

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [132]-141).