The Perception of Violence and the Experiences of Students at a Secondary School for the Visually Impaired

Abstract

Violence is prevalent all around the world and particularly seen to be directed toward children and the disabled. This qualitative study, conducted at a Secondary School for the Visually Impaired in 2011-2012, used phenomenological design and is based on the personal accounts of the student at the school. A semi-structured questionnaire drawn up by the researchers was used as a data collection instrument in the study. Data were collected from 21 students. The students with congenital impaired vision comprised 85.7% of the class. Theme 1: The students' perception of violence. Theme 2: The students' experiences with violence in terms of their definition of the term. Theme 3: Experiences with physical violence. Theme 4: Experiences with verbal abuse. Theme 5: Experiences with emotional abuse and how students behave when subjected to violence. The experiences with violence were analyzed in terms of sub-concepts and sub-texts. The conclusion was reached from an analysis of the students' statements that their experience with violence was mostly in the form of beating and being beaten rather than in other forms of physical violence; their experiences with verbal abuse was mostly in the form of being teased, being subjected to name-calling and being insulted.
Recommendations are that the factors related to the violence disabled students experience are explored, that a scale specific to measuring acts of violence toward the disabled is developed to contribute to studies in this context, that public mental health nurses conduct specific research on sensitive groups in the community, and that school nurses incorporate the matter of violence in their in house programs.