Ingrid Peters considers the fact that she is unable to see, a hurdle that she has long overcome.

A trained graduate teacher with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Peters says confidently that she has her life to live and life goes on as she considers herself an “independent” person.

The married mother of two had trouble with her vision ever since she was a baby and this progressed to total blindness when she was just 16 years old. This condition, however, has not stopped her from accomplishing her goals.

As International Day of Disabled Persons was observed last Monday, Peters, who is now teaching at the St George’s High School in Georgetown says it is time for a residential school for visually impaired persons to be established.

The city resident, who received her basic education at such a facility in Trinidad and Tobago, credits her professional accomplishment to the time spent there. She says now that blind children in Guyana are being denied an opportunity to realize their potential.

Speaking with Stabroek News on Tuesday, Peters said she was born with congenital cataract, resulting in her not having normal vision. At age six, shortly after Guyana attained independence, she was sent to the Santa Cruz School for the Blind in T&T, courtesy of a government programme.

She spent 11 years at that residential facility, in an environment that enabled her to learn and thrive. She said she was able to participate in various activities including sports.

Peters said she could not have attended school here as there was no institution that catered to the needs of blind students at the time.

Upon her return to Guyana in 1978, the Ministry of Education employed her as a Braille instructor at the David Rose School for the Handicapped. Thrust into that environment she recalled that “it was kind of strange” as the school not only catered to visually impaired, but to differently-able students as well.

She spent two years there and said, “I had to do something