SP602 Assignment: Question Framework on Visual Impairment Policy

This assignment, focusing on the SP602 course, provides a comprehensive analysis of social policy concerning visual impairment in education, particularly in Ireland. It utilizes the "Question Framework" to dissect the problem of educational barriers faced by visually impaired students, addressing key aspects like the reasons for the issue, the individuals affected, and the relevant policymakers. The assignment explores the causes of visual impairment, the existing policies impacting the issue, and the political dimensions involved. It further investigates the need for new policies and policy changes, considering their delivery and evaluation. The analysis emphasizes the disempowerment experienced by visually impaired individuals and advocates for inclusive educational strategies, examining the role of government, educational institutions, and support organizations. The paper highlights the importance of addressing gaps in existing policies, such as the lack of post-secondary education and career guidance, and underscores the need for specialized teachers and resources to ensure equal opportunities for visually impaired students.

SP602 Assignment
The Question Framework: a step-by-step approach to analysing social policy
1. Why is the issue or problem a “problem”?
2. Who is affected?
3. Who are the policymakers?
4. What causes the issue or problem?
5. What policies already affect the issue or problem?
6. What are the politics?
7. What new policies or policy changes are needed?
8. How will they be delivered?
9. How will we know if these policies improve the situation?
Why is the issue or problem a “problem”?
Visual impairment is also termed as visual loss and the common reason for this visual loss is cataract.
When visual impairments occur in students it hampers their education for good as they have very
limited ability to learn and observe or provide meaning to their ideas. 90% of the child’s education is
completed through vision which is known as incidental learning. Children with visual impairment
need special guidance in their education process, yet they still struggle in learning accurately. These
children are depended on their other senses for education; therefore they require trained teachers
and special equipped classrooms which would help them to learn. The World Health Organization as
well as the United States has stated in their conferences the prevalence of inclusive education on
international basis. In other words, all the states should provide equal opportunities for education to
those students suffering from visual impairment or other special needs. However, it has been found
that education was not provided to the children suffering from visual impairments. They are usually
left out from the mainstream schools. The developing and underdeveloped countries do not provide
any special education facilities for students with visual impairments unlike the developed and
industrialized states, who have been practicing inclusive education for quite some years now.
Countries could not facilitate inclusive education due to shortage of funds and trained teachers. In
some countries students with visual impairments are made to sit in the general classrooms where
students without any disability attend classes from regular teachers. Thus, the disabled get
neglected in the class or discriminated by their friends or teachers. Until the country makes some
changes in their policy, this problematic situation will persist.
Who is affected?
Visual impairments can affect any individual. The nature of visual impairment and its effect is mixed
according to the mentioned report (Harrington et al. 2019). The study reflects that in regard to blind
and partially blind persons, especially in the Northern Ireland, the impact of visual impairment
within the community is underestimated. Hence the seriousness of the effect can be measured by
comparing the effect with UK regions. In the UK the percentage of complete and partial impairment
ranges between 0.53% to 0.59%. Whereas in Northern Ireland the percentage is 0.35%.
Who are the policymakers?
Around 2.2 billion of people are affected by visual impairments across the globe. Reduced vision or
permanent visual loss impacts on every aspects of life. The person affected with visual impairment
faces difficulties in performing the daily chores, unable to continue school, college or work, problems
while interacting with others or socializing and the individual also faces difficulty while accessing any
public service.
The World Blind Union (WBU) represents a global community consisting 285 million people suffering
from impartial vision and complete blindness. The organization has been working continuously for 3
decades to bring a change in the lives of those 2.2 billion of people diagnosed with visual

impairments. The organizations of Ireland aims to influence the regulations and policies of the
United Nations and several other agencies which are recognized internationally. The organization
work to make this influence so that these agencies understand the problems and needs of a blind or
partially blind people. WBU operates in around 190 countries across the world. The International
Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) promotes equal accessibility of
education for all the visually impaired children so that they can develop their full potential. The
organization brings several other organizations from across the world to facilitate this education to
the visually impaired children.
Education for All Children with Visual Impairment (EFA-VI) has formed partnership with WBU. EFA-VI
is a campaign program of ICEVI for ensuring that every visually impaired child or children with low
vision can learn effectively like other children. The resolution was made that by the year 2020
visually impaired children will be eligible for enrolling in primary schools and taking classes alongside
other non-disabled children.
What causes the issue or problem?
Visually impaired children can have a successful school life as well as a successful post school life.
However, these children often face barriers some of which are listed below:
• Facing negative attitudesà Visually impaired children face negativity and criticism from the society
as well as from their parents. These critics make the children feel ashamed about their disability.
Some parents feel ashamed for having children with such disabilities and thus they avoid sending
their children to school. Even if they go to school the teachers ignore them and the classmates bully
them.
• Lack of educational support from schoolàWhen visually impaired children go to school, they need
to be given special equipped classrooms and specialized teachers which would enable them to
understand the world through their other four senses. The partially blind children also require better
attention from the teachers to make use of their partial vision effectively. However, all these services
are not available in most of the schools.
• Lack of educational support from parentsàThe visually impaired need high support from their
family. They would need a proper verbal explanation of their surroundings; simple skills need to be
taught systematically as they cannot see. However, in some cases parents may not have the patience
or the skills.
Visual impairments can be caused due to several factors which are illustrated below:
• Injury in eyesà Injury to the eyes due to accident or while playing can cause a loss of vision;
Especially injuries in the cornea of the eyes lead to visual impairment.
• Eye infection à When a pregnant woman has a viral infection such as German Measles, then the
virus gets transferred from the mother to the growing foetus during the pregnancy. The baby born
will have higher chances of being born with visual impairment or blindness.
• Cataractà Visualizing blur images from a part of the eye lens or the entire eye lens is known as
cataract. Cataract restricts the light from passing within the lens thus leading to a loss of vision.
Currently 47.8% people of the world are blinded due to cataract.
• Diabetic retinopathyà A patient diagnosed with diabetes has high chances of developing visual
impairments as diabetes affects and damages the blood vessels in the eye.
• Eye cancerà Retinoblastoma is an eye cancer which is caused only in children.
• Genetic inheritance à One of the most common inherited blindness is the retinitis pigmentosa.
• Amblyopiaà This disease causes visual impairment in one eye for lack of use during early
childhood. In this case both eyes transmit different image to the brain, resulting in the brain
suppressing the images sent from the weaker eye. This leads to a halt in the development of that
eye and thus making it blind.

• Glaucomaà Glaucoma occurs due to increase in pressure in the eyes. This rise in pressure impairs
the vision permanently as it damages the optic nerve. This mostly occurs in middle aged people
above 40 years and sometimes in new born babies when they are born with the disease.
• AIDSà Viral infections called cytomegalovirus in the eyes causes visual impairments. People
diagnosed with AIDS have moderate to higher chances of developing this virus.
What policies already affect the issue or problem?
The policies that regulate education for the VI are, firstly, creating different schools for the visually
impaired students is itself discriminating the specially abled child from the main stream students.
Secondly, the marginalised dimensions set by the Government including poverty, gender and class is
also restricting the education procedure for visually impaired. Finally, there are lesser facilities to
educate the family members of the specially abled child for which a negative impact can be observed
on the education procedure of the students.
The above social policies identify the needs of the visually impaired children and therefore make
communities comprising of blind people. They organize campaigns to increase educational
opportunities for the visually impaired children. The organizations have undergone a great deal of
hardship to influence the internationally established organizations for making amendments in their
policy by figuring out the needs of the visually impaired children. However, the social policy makers
have failed to identify the gaps in their system and policy. The needs of the visually impaired
children are recognized and according to the social policy their early schooling starts in a primary
school and continues till higher secondary. However, the policies ignore the need of post-secondary
education for the visually impaired children. There are no such social policies which would ensure
the educational rights of a visually impaired individual for post-secondary education. The policies
also do not cover any career guidance practices for these children. Every student needs professional
guidance regarding the choice of subjects at a later phase of education, which is not provided to
these disabled children. The visually impaired children were made to believe that the career
guidance occurred at a much later stage of education. In the developed countries the career
guidance services are available to the visually impaired children however the services are very
limited.
However, the social policies proposed by the international organizations have made it mandatory for
every nation across the world to create educational opportunities for the visually impaired children
by hiring trained teachers specialized for this purpose and setting up special equipped classes for the
students.
There are numerous NGOs in various countries across the globe who offer education facilities to the
visually impaired children.
What are the politics?
The department of education in Northern Ireland maintains a provision that the needs of every
visually impaired child is catered for at any given point of time. The nature of help given to these
children depends on their functional vision, such as permanently blind or partially blind, in
accordance with the support guidelines of the inter-board.
The minister of education for Northern Ireland has agreed to review the habitation services required
for the visually impaired children. However, the minister has not given any consideration for the
habitation services needed by the visually impaired children. The department of education has some
policies to tackle the barriers of the visually impaired children. The minister of education has
supported the department of education by forming partnership to give priority to their strategy for
educating visually impaired children.
The minister of education and his department previously have not undertaken any steps to
determine the link between the visually impaired children and low educational achievement. After
getting updates from the department of education, the minister has made provision for enrolment

of visually impaired children in mainstream schools of Northern Ireland. The minister has also
acknowledged the need for specialized teachers required by these students.
The minister of education also undertakes actions to ensure the safety measures taken by the
department of education for the blind and partially blind students. The department of education
needs to conduct a vision screening test for the children.
What new policies or policy changes are needed?
Ireland has evolved. The country has witnessed developments in the perception of the society and
their responses to the issue of visual impairment. This is evident as the country has incorporated
inclusive educational strategies for the visually impaired children. The legislation and government of
Ireland have made it mandatory for the mainstream schools to adopt an inclusive strategy and that
support is provided to the visually impaired students. A non-targeted policy meant that the visually
impaired students were ignored and did not have much access to participate in higher education.
Therefore, the Irish government launched Disability Access Route to Education (DARE) for providing
admissions to the visually impaired students in secondary schools and colleges.
In japan visually impaired children were taught in separate special schools isolated from the rest of
the society. In the year 2006 however an inclusive education policy was adopted by the Japanese
government. In 2014 the government of japan and the American government issued an article for
recognizing the rights of people with disabilities to education. However, the government policies of
japan does not identify the need of special teachers required for teaching these disabled children.
In Kazakhstan, the recent legislation involves a principle of equal rights given to the visually impaired
children for education. The legislation of the country has incorporated some laws relating to the
education of visually impaired children, such as law for the rights of a child in Kazakhstan (2002), law
for education in the republic of Kazakhstan (2007) and the law for social, medical and educational
support for children with disabilities (2002). Although upon comparison with Ireland it has been
found that the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan has not issued any specific document
relating to the rights, neither is any provision made for inclusive education of the visually impaired
children unlike the EPSEN Act adopted in Ireland.
How will they be delivered?
The policies can be delivered through educating the family and community members as they are the
persons responsible for the child’s basic education. The Governments should take initiatives by
promoting the policies through the governmental websites. Apart from this, the initiatives need to
implemented within the community to draw effective outcomes from the strategies.
However, the social policies proposed by the international organizations have made it mandatory for
every nation across the world to create educational opportunities for the visually impaired children
by hiring trained teachers specialized for this purpose and setting up special equipped classes for the
students.
There are numerous NGOs in various countries across the globe which offer education facilities to
the visually impaired children
How will we know if these policies improve the situation?
Around 2.2 billion of people are affected by visual impairments across the globe. Reduced vision or
permanent visual loss impacts on every aspects of life. The person affected with visual impairment
faces difficulties in performing the daily chores, unable to continue school, college or work, has
problems while interacting with others or socializing and the individual also faces difficulty while
accessing any public service.
The World Blind Union (WBO) represents a global community consisting 285 million people who
suffer from impartial vision to complete blindness. The organization has been working continuously
for 3 decades to bring a change in the lives of those 2.2 billion people diagnosed with visual

impairments. The organization aims to influence the regulations and policies of the United Nations
and several other agencies which are recognized internationally. The organization work to make this
influence so that these agencies understand the problems and needs of a blind or partially blind
people. WBU operates in around 190 counties across the world. The International Council for
Education of People with
Visual Impairment (ICEVI) promotes equal access to education for all the visually impaired children
so that they can develop their full potential. The organization brings several other organizations
from across the world to facilitate this education to the visually impaired children.
Education for All Children with Visual Impairment (EFA-VI) has formed partnership with WBU. EFA-VI
is a campaign program of ICEVI for ensuring that every visually impaired child or children with low
vision can learn effectively like the other children. The resolution was made that by the year 2020
visually impaired children will be eligible for enrolling in primary schools and taking classes alongside
other non-disabled children.

References
Hewett, R., Douglas, G., McLinden, M. and Keil, S., 2017. Developing an inclusive learning
environment for students with visual impairment in higher education: Progressive mutual
accommodation and learner experiences in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Special Needs
Education, 32(1), pp.89-109.
Harrington, S.C., Stack, J., Saunders, K. and O’Dwyer, V., 2019. Refractive error and visual impairment
in Ireland schoolchildren. British Journal of Ophthalmology, 103(8), pp.1112-1118.
Stewart, J., 2014. Visual Impairment and Educational Attainment.
Hanna, K.L. and Rowe, F.J., 2017. Health inequalities associated with post-stroke visual impairment
in the United Kingdom and Ireland: A systematic review. Neuro-Ophthalmology, 41(3), pp.117-136.
De Schipper, T., Lieberman, L.J. and Moody, B., 2017. “Kids like me, we go lightly on the head”:
Experiences of children with a visual impairment on the physical self-concept. British Journal of
Visual Impairment, 35(1), pp.55-68.
McCarthy, P. and Shevlin, M., 2017. Opportunities and challenges in secondary education for
blind/vision-impaired people in the Republic of Ireland. Disability & Society, 32(7), pp.1007-1026.
National Council for the Blind Ireland, https://www.ncbi.ie/facts-about-sightloss/
Accessed 11/03/2020
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