The Royal School for the Blind in Liverpool, England, is the oldest specialist school of its kind in the UK, having been founded in 1791.[1] 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.[2][3] It was also the first school in the world to offer education and training to blind adults as well as children.[4][page needed]
- ^ Royden, Mike. "Edward Rushton - life and times of an 18th Century Radical and the foundation of the Blind School in Liverpool". Mike Royden's Local History Pages.
- ^ Royden Mike, Edward Rushton, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2001)
- ^ "Unsung: life story of Edward Rushton". History of Place.
- ^ Phillips, Gordon (2004). The Blind in British Society: Charity, State and Community c1780-1930. Ashgate Publishing Ltd.