This may sound like a targetted jab, and it's not meant to. I think that kids generally pick on people who act differently, and people act differently because they believe they are different, and the cycle just repeats and gets worse. One difference among blind people is the idea that adults generally keep a closer eye on them and have the potential to also treat them very differently, reinforcing these perceptions in a huge way. Kids pick up on this (inbbcluding the blind student in question), and it further widens the gap. The blind student believes they are set apart from sighted peers because they're treated that way by adults they probably look up to; the sighted peers believe the same. Perception changes need to start with the adults, and it needs to be as hands-off as possible. In classrooms the differences are sometimes unavoidable, but teachers still drop the ball sometimes. They shouldn't intervene when someone asks the student why they're using a computer or Brailler. Let the student answer the question. This all probably sounds like common sense to most people who are in touch with the community, but all it takes is one or two people to show someone they're utterly and completely different.

I've noticed from all the family days/ conferences etc we've attended over the years that 8 seems to be the age the child becomes self conscious, realises they are different, and becomes upset by it all.

My daughter thinks everyone in school underestimates her abilities, where as usually it's a health and safety concern why they might be stopping her from doing something

I suppose being discreet and subtle would be key in the classroom. I think initially the teacher and staff might positively talk up a new piece of tech for example to encourage the child to use it however I feel this might be over done and then if feels like it's being announced "look everyone jonny is using his mercury 12".

Or are teachers calling out loudly from their desk "Mary turn on your camera" these things maybe need to be whispered and not made made big deal of

Sorry I'm rambling now

Thank you everyone for sharing! I really appreciate all your help. I want to do the best I can to help the students I work with, and it’s so helpful to know some of the challenges you or your children have faced so I can know how to do better.

I had problems with peers, bullies, schoolwork, and teachers.

Any person I met that wasn't my closest family, immediately began acting like I was a freak from the sewers crawled out to eat them. I could never see their faces, but the shadows of their brows, how they moved away from me, and their tones of voice always gave it away.

Bullies, I'd always get punched, kicked, pushed, hit with something, and was never allowed to defend myself. When teachers would state that I wasn't allowed to be hit in the head because it could cause my retinas and optic nerve to detach and make me go blind, kids always TRIED to make it happen. When I'd speak up to the teacher, they talked to me as if I was being a spoiled brat. Eventually I stopped caring and got bigger and started beating on the kids who hurt me (for a short time. I developed a conciounce very early. My size helped in some ways, too.)

Schoolwork was always difficult. I was expected to read just as fast as everyone else, even though I needed large print. Large print doesn't always mean the ability to read faster, only that a student finally has a chance to attempt to read.

The teachers, boy oh boy, the teachers. The fit in to every catagory I listed above. The caused the most problems. If I had issues with anything, I was treated horribly. Until I got to state run private school for blind people, I had terrible grades, all because I had problems seeing.
Most of my teachers never even bothered to help me with my work. They just have me the regular print sized stuff and left me on my own without so much as a hint. If I was out of school sick for one day, I was done for.
Eventually I became so depressed (at age 7), I began faking my vision was getting worse JUST so I could get out of school and not feel like I didn't deserve to be alive.

I couldn't tell you the deep philosophical and psychological points of all this, because it caused me PTSD, making it extremely difficult to step away from all of this when I talk about it. I'm an adult and know I'm not there anymore, but I deal with stuff like this on a continuous basis, so when I talk about it I start feeling like I'm back there.

If I totally missed the point of all this, tell me and I'll delete my comment.

My main challenges were making friends with sighted peers, answering my sighted peers questions about my visual impairment, and bullying and teasing from others regarding my white cane