The case of Emily
Emily Green is six years old and is of grade one age .
She has moved from another province.
She is visually impaired. She blindness is profound.
Emily has a medical diagnosis of profound vison impairment.
There is no concern about or evidence of any other limitation or condition.
There are no behavioural or safety issues.
Emily has no system in place to allow her to access the curriculum. The other children can look at pictures and learn to read and print and draw but Emily cannot.
In September her mother, Ms. Green, walked into the neighbourhood community school on the first day to register her daughter. She also asked to meet immediately with the principal to talk about her daughter.
Let’s explore the rights and responsibilities of both parents and schools with regard to Emily. In that her visual impairment is fairly straightforward, The way forward, entrenched in legislation and law will seem intuitively obvious and born of commonsense.