Services for visually impaired students get $9M funding boost

Last Updated: Friday, May 30, 2008 | 10:21 AM ET

CBC News

Alberta will spend $9 million over the next three years to help more than 600 visually impaired students across the province, the government announced Thursday.

Education Minister Dave Hancock said the $3.1-million funding boost each year will help visually impaired students succeed in their studies and complete their education.

“Alberta’s K-12 students with vision loss require specialized support to complete their high school education and become independent. Providing that support is a priority for our government," he said in a release.

Hancock said the money will allow schools to recruit more braille transcribers to ensure visually impaired students receive their braille textbooks at the same time as their peers.

Schools will also use the funding to revise curriculum to enhance support for provincial examinations, provide more vision specialists to help students in the classroom and provide more specialized equipment such as braille computers and closed circuit televisions.

Hancock said his department met with stakeholders from school associations, the Alberta Society for the Visually Impaired, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Vision Resource Centre representatives last November to determine the students' needs.

Bill McKeown, vice-president of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, said the funding will make a "big difference."

"It's going to mean a big difference to students that are going through school with vision loss and enable them to do much better in the school work and to, as we say, compete with their sighted peers," he told CBC News.

Alberta schools serve 662 students who are blind or visually impaired, of whom 16 per cent participate in modified programs.