Byron Smith - An Eleven-Year-Old Pioneer
"She kept finding out that blind students were attending regular public schools in all of the surrounding states and she couldn't figure out why weren't doing that in Indiana," recalls Byron Smith of his mother. Having recently lost his vision due to due to congenital glaucoma, seven-year-old…
Title
Byron Smith - An Eleven-Year-Old Pioneer
Subject
Inclusion
Education
Visual Disability
Description
"She kept finding out that blind students were attending regular public schools in all of the surrounding states and she couldn't figure out why weren't doing that in Indiana," recalls Byron Smith of his mother. Having recently lost his vision due to due to congenital glaucoma, seven-year-old "Bikey" entered the Indiana State School for the Blind in 1951. Five years later, and after intensive advocacy on the part of his parents and community members, he returned to his home town of Bloomington to attend Rogers Elementary School. In this 2013 interview excerpt, Byron Smith describes how he became the first pupil to be transferred from the state school to a public elementary school. He also talks about the essential tutoring assistance he received from Indiana University's Delta Gamma sorority as both a high school and college student.
Creator
Indiana Disability History Project
Date
2017-07-28
Contributor
Byron K. Smith - interviewee
Jane Harlan-Simmons - interviewer
Peggy Holtz - Videographer/Editor
Rights
Copyright © 2017 The Trustees of Indiana University
Format
video/mp4
Language
English
Type
Moving Image
Identifier
011-mi-02
Access Rights
Open to all users
Is Part Of
011-mi
Bibliographic Citation
"Byron Smith - An Eleven-Year-Old Pioneer" YouTube video, 00:06:09, interview excerpt 011-mi-02 by the Indiana Disability History Project, posted by "Indiana Disability History" on July 28, 2017, https://youtu.be/i0xlgGfVZO0.
Spatial Coverage
Indiana, Monroe County, Bloomington
Temporal Coverage
1950-1965
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