For most families, starting school is an exciting milestone. But for kids who are blind or have low vision, this isn’t always the case.
For 11-year-old Ella James and her mum Yeon Richards, school has been nothing short of a nightmare. Ella is legally blind and a long cane user, after being diagnosed with Optic Pathway Glioma from a large brain tumour.
In Year 4, Ella was placed in a third-floor classroom, which posed a serious safety risk as she couldn’t go up and down the stairs independently. Despite Ella’s obvious blindness, an education department representative and the school didn’t see the issue and initially refused to move her classroom to a lower level.
Yeon had to do her own research to discover the Disability Education Standards and rang the anti-discrimination number. With the backing of the standards, Yeon advised the school and education department representative that they couldn’t justify that moving the classroom would be an ‘unjustifiable hardship’. The school finally relented and moved Ella’s classroom.
Ella’s chemotherapy and cancer treatments, compounded by not receiving the right modifications from her previous school, have meant she has fallen behind her sighted peers. Rather than working in collaboration with Yeon and Ella, Yeon said that most meetings with the school were divisive and unsupportive.
School also presents unique challenges for 9-year-old Raph Spillane, who is legally blind due to ocular albinism.
His requests for a laptop as per the recommendations of Vision Australia’s vision specialists have been rejected, and instead he is made to use a desktop computer that is in an isolated corner of the classroom, with little interaction with his peers.
It’s also not uncommon for Raph’s visiting teacher to come infrequently and to overlook the advice and suggested adjustments from Raph’s qualified vision specialists, such as the use of a magnifier and large print on tests.
Raph’s mother, Francesca, said his experience is eating away at Raph’s confidence.
“I know that many schools feel like they are under-resourced, time-poor and that there is an incredible strain on teachers to keep up with the needs of children with diverse disabilities,” said Francesca.
“However, the resources that are at their disposal aren’t being fully utilised, or the educators don’t know they even exist.
“I only knew about the disability education standards through my own research and my background in education. It’s not information that is well known among some teachers, and most importantly, parents.”
It is clear the current Disability Standards for Education are failing to meet the needs of students who are blind or have low vision across Australia, jeopardising their ability to learn alongside their peers.
In a submission to the 2025 Review of the Disability Standards for Education, Vision Australia has called for an overhaul of how the Standards are enforced and for it to be compulsory for educational institutions to provide the Standards to all students and parents at the point of an application for enrolment.
Under the Standards, students who are blind or have low vision or live with any other disability should be able to access adjustments to support their learning experience, however research by Vision Australia shows that 59% of students who are blind or have low vision or their parents were not aware the Standards existed.
