Oliphant, John

John Oliphant is currently Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Law at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. He received his M.Phil. for research at South Bank University, London in collaboration with the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Early Education of the Blind in Britain 1790 - 1900

2007 0-7734-5247-8
Illustrates the educational experience of the blind in Victorian Britain, and examines critically the origins, nature, achievements and shortcomings of the voluntary institutions responsible in the State’s absence. The work discusses early unheeded criticisms of utilitarian education in confinement, the influential reports of the Charity Organisation Society (1876) and the Royal Commission (1899) on the condition of the disabled, and compares the role of the British state with more active governments elsewhere. Overall, Britain’s institutions offered inferior industrial training and less cultural stimulation than their counterparts in Saxony, France or the United States.