Students with visual impairments in Israel: quality of life as a subjective experience

Abstract

The present paper is based on research that investigated the quality of life of students with visual impairments, included in the regular education system, according to their own perceptions as reported in individual open interviews. The research comprised 19 students between the ages of 14 and 19 years. The main fi ndings revealed three major themes: life in school with a focus on teachers ' behavior towards the pupil; peers ' reactions and the impact of stigma; family coping with the disability. Mixed feelings appeared in the fi rst two themes. Regarding their teachers, the students reported support while at the same time they also felt a lack of sincere respect. Concerning peers, students felt that stigma affected their friendship behavior. Finally, most reports indicated satisfaction with the family bonds. Yet, there is almost no direct reference to the visual problem.

Nuevo cuestionario de barreras físicas y actitudinales para personas con déficit visual: BAC-DV

“…La escala de Discriminación puede ser útil para identificar conductas discriminatorias, prevenir e intervenir en entornos relevantes, como los sanitarios (Khan y Simon, 2011). En el ámbito educativo, por ejemplo, se ha estudiado qué factores permiten contrarrestar las conductas discriminatorias (Hess, 2011).…”

Individual, family, and environmental determinants of vision-related quality of life of children and young people with visual impairment

“…Some children and young people with VI (CYP-VI) may be at risk of impaired quality of life (QoL) [7,8], poor psychosocial adjustment [9], low self-esteem [10], and poor social and educational outcomes [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. CYP-VI can experience difficulties fitting in and making friends and are frequently teased and bullied by their peers [6,7,13,[18][19][20][21].…”

The Key For Promoting The Social Conduct Of Students With Visual Imperments

“…• Identifying and developing a student's growth potential according to the humanistic educational approach (Hess, 2010(Hess, , 2011(Hess, , 2014(Hess, , 2015Reiter, 2008;Reiter & Schalock, 2008). According to this approach, attitudes toward students must be as whole entities, where disability is just another one of their characteristics, but not their main characteristic.…”

“…• An additional principle is to promote students' quality of life in various areas to foster their abilities to integrate meaningfully into their community. This goal will be achieved by teachers promoting students' experiences of success in different social frameworks: regular school, peer group of students with VI, leisure activities in the community, youth movements and more (Hess, 2010(Hess, , 2011(Hess, , 2015Reiter, 2008;Reiter & Schalock, 2008). student desire, urgency, chances of success, and more.…”