Historically, blind education has referred to those facilities, programs, techniques, and practices designed to maximize formal learning for persons with significant to total loss of vision. Such education has taken place in a variety of formal and informal instructional settings, including the home, private tutoring sessions, segregated and integrated classrooms in public schools, public and private day schools, and public as well as private residential institutions. As a modality impairment, blindness has existed throughout history and in all societies. The bulk of practices in the United States, however, have evolved from origins and developments specific to the Western world. As this entry considers the education of blind persons, information on its historical development in Europe, Canada, and the United States complements descriptions and discussion of ...