Byron Smith - An Eleven-Year-Old Pioneer

Byron Smith - An Eleven-Year-Old Pioneer

Inclusion

Education

Visual Disability

"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.

Indiana Disability History Project

2017-07-28

Byron K. Smith - interviewee

Jane Harlan-Simmons - interviewer

Peggy Holtz - Videographer/Editor

Copyright © 2017 The Trustees of Indiana University

video/mp4

English

Moving Image

011-mi-02

Open to all users

011-mi

"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.

Indiana, Monroe County, Bloomington

1950-1965