How Was School Today: Part 4 of the History of Education for Canadians who are Blind, Deafblind and Partially Sighted

"In this fourth podcast in a series covering the education of Canadians who are blind, deafblind, and partially sighted, the Triple Vision team explores the history of the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind in Ontario. Peter speaks with Dan Maggiacomo, who has the honour of being the school’s Principal in this, its 150th anniversary. Hanna then talks to Alan Conway about his experiences there. The only remaining school for the blind in Canada, the W. Ross Macdonald School continues to evolve to provide relevant educational opportunities for children and youth with vision loss. “These days it's split about 50–50. Fifty percent of our students are blind and 50 percent of our students have low vision, and they tend to come for perhaps five years or less. We have programs that are just a year or two in duration. We have programs that are a week long several times throughout the year. We still run a robust high school program increasingly doing things like STEM - the sciences and mathematics - where these students are finding the opportunity here to participate fully in those types of programs. So, there was a time when, I think, it was the conception of the school, that we were going to become a school that was really specialized serving students with additional needs only. That period has passed and now we are a comprehensive school. Yes, we have students with all different types of needs, but I think the school now has the greatest range of learners that we have ever had, and that’s absolutely to the school’s benefit.” "