We caught up with Eva, age 14, to hear about life at her mainstream school. Eva has a visual impairment so some of her lessons and playground experiences are a little different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hi, I\u2019m Eva. Right now, I\u2019m at school studying for my GCSEs. With my visual impairment, I can\u2019t see things that are over two metres away in detail. So, the way I do my lessons is a bit different from the other people in my class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a really good teacher for Computer Science \u2013 she\u2019s passionate and very helpful. In our coding lessons, for example, she\u2019s always looking for ways to make the class activities more accessible to me. This is one of my favourite subjects at the moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lessons that aren\u2019t taught on computers can be trickier. I can\u2019t see the whiteboard from my seat, even if I\u2019m sitting right at the front. For me to take part, my teaching assistant will take a picture of the board and send it to me over email. Then I can look at the board from my iPad. If it\u2019s an interactive whiteboard I can just have it up on my screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this way, my school\u2019s pretty good at making things accessible. I get enlarged handouts too and have extra equipment in the classroom. But some days it\u2019s still a bit stressful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another thing that makes a big difference to my day is seating plans. If there are changes it can be stressful. When I\u2019m sat with students who don\u2019t know me well, then they won\u2019t always understand my visual impairment. Sometimes people make comments about the extra equipment I use in class, like my iPad or Apple pencil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There aren\u2019t many kids at my school with disabilities. There have been a few others with visual impairments, but they are in different year groups or different parts of the school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there were more kids with disabilities, then I think the other children would be more used to seeing it every day. When it\u2019s just me, some people start to see me as \u2018the girl with the visual impairment\u2019, not a person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sometimes feel like if there were more people like me, I could make friends with them. But even if there aren\u2019t, I know that it\u2019s important not to hide my disability. That would be my advice to anyone navigating school \u2013 be yourself and don\u2019t try to hide your disability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another important lesson is that there are kind people out there. You\u2019ll find them and soon have friends. It\u2019s not worth bothering about anyone who isn\u2019t nice \u2013 you wouldn\u2019t want to be friends with them anyway! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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