Understanding Vision Impairment

There are an estimated 34,500 blind and partially sighted children and young people aged 0-25 in England. This is only 2-3% of the total estimated SEND population which makes it a low incidence disability.

Given this, it may be that you haven’t supported any or many blind or partially sighted students and may need extra guidance to put the right support in place. No one expects career advisers, teachers or other professionals to be an expert in knowing what support a blind or partially sighted student may need, that is why we are here.

The stats

To help you understand how many blind and partially sighted children and young people there are in England and in your area please read ‘Key facts about vision impairment in children and young people.’

RNIB has also produced a Sight Loss Data tool which provides local data on the number of blind and partially sighted people across every local authority.

What do we see?

For an understanding of what people with different sight conditions might see, watch our brilliant What do we see video