Visually Impaired Physiotherapists: their struggle for acceptance and survival

Abstract

This paper traces the development of physiotherapy as a career for visually impaired people from the end of the 19th century until the present day; It is an aspect of the author's on-going PhD research into the employment situation of visually impaired physiotherapists. Visually impaired physiotherapy students were initially integrated with their sighted peers, but from 1915 their training was taken over by the Royal National Institute for the Blind within a segregated college. This arrangement lasted until 1992 when visually impaired students were accepted for training as physiotherapists at the University of East London. This paper traces the difficulties visually impaired people have experienced in their struggle for acceptance and survival within the physiotherapy profession, and the important influences, such as the First and Second World Wars and the development of the National Health Service, which has helped to shape their destiny.