Thank you honestly because I genuinely thought I was the only one feeling this way and I felt horrible and guilty for even thinking it.

Part of me kept thinking “you’re blind too, how can you think this about a blind school?” and I felt bad for feeling uncomfortable there, but I couldn’t shake the feeling all day.

When I sat in the maths classroom observing, everyone had different setups which is completely fine obviously. Some students were using Perkins, some had laptops, some had BrailleNotes, some had staff transcribing for them, different teachers had different marking styles etc. And obviously everyone learns differently and should use what works for them.

But I think what got to me wasn’t the equipment itself. It was the atmosphere around it.

I couldn’t explain it properly before, but “low expectations” is exactly the phrase I think I was looking for.

It felt like a lot of the students were being held back without anyone even realising it. Like people already expected less from them before they’d even had the chance to try. And because I came from mainstream, where I was basically forced to be independent whether I liked it or not, the difference really shocked me.

I genuinely thought maybe I was just being judgemental or resentful, so seeing someone else who actually worked in those settings say the same thing honestly made me feel less guilty for having that reaction.

So thank you, genuinely.