Perkins School for the Blind (2024)

FAQs

Does the Perkins Institute still exist? ›

About Perkins

We are the worldwide leader in education services for children and young adults who are blind and visually impaired with multiple disabilities. An international NGO, we are infinitely innovating to solve longstanding and emerging problems facing our communities, our students and our families.

Perkins is proud to offer a full continuum of educational services for students ages 3-22 who are blind, visually impaired or deafblind. Whether you are ready to apply today or exploring options for the future, the Perkins Admissions team is here to assist you.

What is the most famous school for the blind? Many consider Perkins School for the Blind (also previously known as Perkins Institution for the Blind) to be the most famous. Founded in 1829 in Massachusetts, it was the first school for the blind in the United States.

Many people have shaped the history of Perkins since 1829, from well-known writers like Louisa May Alcott and Charles Dickens to numerous Perkins staff and alumni like Anne Sullivan, David Abraham, and Robert Smithdas.

Keller attended Perkins School for the Blind for four years. She then spent a year at the Cambridge School for Young Ladies to prepare for Radcliffe College. In 1904, she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe and became the first person with deafblindness to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

In 1887, the second director of Perkins, Michael Anagnos, founded the first kindergarten for the blind, located in Jamaica Plain, due to overcrowding in South Boston. The school moved to its current location in Watertown in 1912, where it is located on a 38.5 acre property on the banks of the Charles River.

Dave Power, President & CEO – Perkins School for the Blind.

Only the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris is older, but the Royal School for the Blind is the oldest school in the world in continuous operation, and the first in the world founded by a blind person, Edward Rushton, who was also an anti-slavery campaigner.

Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind.

Despite repeated attempts to save her sight, some of which were partially or temporarily successful, Anne was visually impaired for most of her life and completely blind by 1935.

What state has the best school for the blind? ›

“So do you go to a special school”? I remember being asked this question all of the time as a child. Although special schools for the blind do exist, many children who are blind or visually impaired in the United States now attend public schools alongside their sighted peers.

Perkins was founded in 1829, becoming the first school for the blind in the United States. Our two founders, Dr. John Dix Fisher and Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, worked together in the cause of education and opportunity for people who were blind, with an impact that now reaches around the world.

Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876) served as the founding director of what would become Perkins School for the Blind.

Valentin Haüy (pronounced [aɥi]; 13 November 1745 – 19 March 1822) was the founder, in 1785, of the first school for the blind, the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris (now Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, or the National Institute for the Young Blind, INJA). In 1819, Louis Braille entered this school.