Parents’ vision for blind school

By Bridget Brady
DEVASTATED by the closure of their daughter’s school, a Pearcedale couple has taken matters into their own hands and will open what will be the state’s only blind school next year.
Alan and Maria Franca Lachman’s determination all started when Vision Australia last year announced it would close its doors at the end of this year.
The couple’s youngest daughter, Francesca, 8, is totally blind and attends the school two days a week. It is currently the only school for the blind in Victoria.
Mr and Mrs Lachman are passionate believers that blind or vision impaired students should get the opportunity to obtain specialised education, and decided they would open their own school.
After much hard work, the independent Insight Education Centre for the Blind and Vision Impaired will open in Glen Waverley in February. They are taking over an existing building at community organisation Best Chance and re-working it.
“I didn’t think twice about it, but it’s been a very tough road,” Mr Lachman said. “We did petitions and went to the government and so we said, we can’t wait for politicians. We weren’t going to get anywhere unless we did it ourselves.”
The family moved from Italy in 2007 because Australia provided the opportunity to choose mainstream or specialised education for their daughter.
Mr Lachman said children deserved the chance to get specialised education and move into mainstream later if they wanted to.
Their independent school would not be a copy of Vision Australia in Burwood, Mr Lachman said.
It will be a primary school, but will be open as a tutoring-type service for secondary aged students. One of the most significant aspects of the new school will be a training service for teachers to enable them to cater for the blind and vision impaired, a training service that Mr Lachman said was lacking in Victoria.
Students will be able to attend the school as full-time or part-time students if they still attended a mainstream school, and the school will offer services such as braille literacy, specialised sports and orientation mobility.
A specialised school was an important part of some blind or vision impaired students, Mr Lachman said.
The pair has received promises of donations from private donors and are hoping to receive Federal Government funding, but Mr Lachman said donations were still needed to help fund the school.
For information on the school visit the website www.insightvision.com.au