VIDBE-Q Volume 68 Issue 1
KSB is more than a school though; it is a community that advocates for
those it serves and has served. It stands as a testament to the past and future
contributions of men and women who are blind and visually impaired, and the
belief that while visual deficits may pose challenges they do not define, nor do they
squelch possibilities and dreams. Its alumni and supporters – among the school's
staunchest ambassadors – readily share that belief. As KSB alumnus and teacher
Brian Mullins so eloquently puts it: "Without KSB I would not be a college
graduate, I would not be employed, I would not be a homeowner, I would not be a
coach, I would not be much of anything, and I probably would not be alive today."
The school is so much a part of the fabric of Louisville, it is easy to drive by
its stone-walled campus and not recognize its immense historical and educational
significance. In his book, A History of Education in Kentucky (2011), William Ellis
credits Kentucky as one of the first states to provide education for the blind. KSB
was, in fact, the third state-supported school for the blind in the United States.
The school's founder and president of the Louisville Collegiate Institute,
Bryce McLellan Patten, along with his brother, Otis, began teaching a class of six
blind students in the summer of 1839. In early 1841, in an effort to attain funding
for a school for the blind, Otis Patten presented an exhibition of his blind students'
skills before the Kentucky General Assembly. The brothers' request for funding
proved unsuccessful that session, but they remained undeterred. A year later, they
