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- Visual Impairment and Blindness
Visual Impairment or Blindness
It is difficult to obtain an exact prevalence of visual impairment due to the often hidden nature of visual impairment in special education. Many students with visual impairments also have additional coexisting impairments and are thus classified in an alternate disability category. The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities reports that the rate of occurrence for visual impairments in individuals under the age of 18 is at the rate of 12.2 per 1,000. Legal or total blindness occurs at a rate of .06 per 1,000. Current special education demographics obtained from the American Foundation for the Blind 2009 report that there are:
- 93,600 students who are visually impaired or blind;
- 55,200 students who are legally blind;
- 5,500 braille readers