Disabled Students

[OliveOil_Med]

I also wonder about the school's house-elves. They live to serve the Hogwarts student and would certainly do all they could to help a disabled student if it was within their abilities. How do you think the house-elves would be able to cater to their needs? With any kind of disability they might be encountered with?

[Lady Juliet]

I also wonder about the school's house-elves. They live to serve the Hogwarts student and would certainly do all they could to help a disabled student if it was within their abilities. How do you think the house-elves would be able to cater to their needs? With any kind of disability they might be encountered with?

Maybe with a blind student they'd move any object that that student might run into out of the way so they don't bump into it. Or they'd make rooms safer for a blind student.

Question: Would a disabled student sleep in the same dorms as the regular students, of would they get their own?

I can see a blind student getting their own room. It would be potentially fatal for a blind student to sleep in a room with messy room-mates. If one of their room-mates left a razor, or some other sharp object, or even a non sharp object on the floor they could trip over that object, and obtain substantial injures. I split my knee open on a "Littlest Pet Shop" house a couple years ago, and I had to have stitches. (Moral of the story: Keep your rooms clean.)

-Juliet

[minnabird]

On the question of how the disabled students would learn, I would say they would go to most normal classes, as well as having private sessions with the teachers to learn special ways to do the spells, etc. in a way that accomodates their disability--for example, I can see a mute person having to learn how to do nonverbal spells early on, before they could start learning spells. I think a blind person would be let out of a class like Astronomy, but would have to have a very patient partner or a seeing eye elf to do Potions. Maybe their cauldron could be spelled so that it screeched/made some sort of alarm if the Potion started to go wrong?
I like the idea of a deaf person having a Quick Quotes Quill/spelled glasses to tell him or her what people were saying.
I agree with the idea that a blind person's Boggart would be something that made some sort of spine-chilling noise or otherwise had non-visual effects--Banshee, Augurey, Dementor, etc. I think their Patronus would take form whether they could see or not.
Very interesting topic, and one I admit I have wondered about on occasion.

[OliveOil_Med]

I have a blind student in one of my upcoming stories, so I have been doing a lot of thinking as to what school would be like for them if they were a witch or a wizard.

I agree with the idea that a blind person's Boggart would be something that made some sort of spine-chilling noise or otherwise had non-visual effects--Banshee, Augurey, Dementor, etc.

I almost wonder if a blind student might confuse a Boggart. They are so used to knowing what people are afraid of by their sight, and blind wizards aren't that common. It might even confuse the blurrs and blackness for what they are afraid of, and turn into that. And when the students aren't afraid, who knows how it would react.

Also, if the Boggart did only know what they were afraid of, I wonder what form it would take the shape of. A blind person may be the only one to see a Boggarts true form, except because they can't see in the first place, they can't tell anyone what they look like.

I think their Patronus would take form whether they could see or not.

Maybe, but I almost think it might have a few odd features because they may percive a creature as looking a certain way, but would not be entirly right.