Chailey Heritage School

The school has two dark rooms which are used for functional vision assessments. They are equipped with fibre optic lights, torch lights, brightly coloured moving patterns created by an oil wheel projector and sensory trolleys which have equipment to project images; switches to operate fibre optic lights; UV black light; UV nail varnish and toys; glow sticks. The dark background makes it easier for these types of lights to be perceived by pupils with partial sight.

The ultra violet lighting in the dark room promotes visual discrimination and hand eye coordination. Students are encouraged to locate, follow and reach out to fluorescent objects, toys and puppets. In or out of their chair they are encouraged to wear fluorescent wrist or ankle bands and watch the result of their own movements under the UV light.

The dark rooms encourage students to make use of their residual vision by offering quiet environments in which to locate lights and objects and track them if possible. Students can demonstrate which colours and size of objects they respond to best and use switches to make lights turn on and off.

The dark rooms can also be used by students with hearing impairment where they can be encouraged to use their hearing in a distraction-free environment and demonstrate which frequencies they respond to best.