I have worked in NYC public schools, and they are generally scary as fuck. (Well, by high school anyway - when I was a program assistant, I wasn't allowed to walk in the halls alone or use the student restrooms because the safety hazard was significant.) In general, the school system suffers from serious problems because anyone who can afford to send their kids to private school does so, leaving behind a largely impoverished student body that needs more social services that current funding provides. Elementary schools are not violent, but they can be really chaotic, and it can be hard for advanced students to get a good education because so many students are struggling academically. Facility-wise, you have to keep in mind that we're talking about big cities without a lot of space. Not every school is going to have a gym, for example. There are quite a few Catholic schools aimed at parents who might not be able to afford a really fancy private school, and in my head canon, Matt might have gotten a scholarship to one of these (or if the order that ran his orphanage ran a school as well, he might have just attended there).
NYC does have some truly fabulous public high schools, but they're magnet schools -- which means that even though they're public institutions, you have to apply to get in. Applications are extraordinarily competitive, and Matt probably would have been up against a lot of wealthier students who had tutors to help prep their applications. Nonetheless, in my head canon, he got in to one of them. Bronx Science and Stuyvesant are two likely candidates IMHO, and they both have awesome debate teams, which would be a likely activity for a future lawyer.
I didn't deal with the Disability Act when I worked in NYC, but I do as a high school teacher outside NYC now. Most schools have one designated Special Education teacher whose job is to coordinate special services for any student who needs one. The quality of the services provided usually has a lot to do with how good this person is. Availability of Braille texts may be the biggest challenge Matt faced because they are very, very expensive. Braille books are delicate and have to be assembled by hand, and they're also much larger than "regular" books, so one novel might require 3-4 volumes. A public elementary or an underfunded private school might have really struggled to obtain these. If Matt is mid-twenties/early thirties, then he grew up before the smart phone age, so he wouldn't have had an app that could just read text for him although he may have been able to have books scanned and use OCR software.
Beyond that, a lot of stuff would have been up to the individual teacher. Most public school teachers are really overwhelmed right now because our student loads are high and our schools are very poorly funded. A lot of teachers will move heaven and earth to see that all their students get what they need, especially if it's a good student like Matt. On the other hand, there are assholes everywhere, and some overworked teachers might view Matt as a thorn in the side, or just one more difficult task they don't need. The accommodations for having a blind student in class aren't too burdensome - you just need to be willing to talk out loud about anything you write on the board, describe diagrams in detail, etc. -- but I know some people in my building who would think that would be unreasonable (and it would require a substantial departure from how some math/science teachers work).
If you have more questions about the school system, or about blind students in general, let me know. I have a blind student coming into my English class next year, so I'm learning a lot about how to make a classroom accessible.
Re: Ask about New York thread!
NYC does have some truly fabulous public high schools, but they're magnet schools -- which means that even though they're public institutions, you have to apply to get in. Applications are extraordinarily competitive, and Matt probably would have been up against a lot of wealthier students who had tutors to help prep their applications. Nonetheless, in my head canon, he got in to one of them. Bronx Science and Stuyvesant are two likely candidates IMHO, and they both have awesome debate teams, which would be a likely activity for a future lawyer.
I didn't deal with the Disability Act when I worked in NYC, but I do as a high school teacher outside NYC now. Most schools have one designated Special Education teacher whose job is to coordinate special services for any student who needs one. The quality of the services provided usually has a lot to do with how good this person is. Availability of Braille texts may be the biggest challenge Matt faced because they are very, very expensive. Braille books are delicate and have to be assembled by hand, and they're also much larger than "regular" books, so one novel might require 3-4 volumes. A public elementary or an underfunded private school might have really struggled to obtain these. If Matt is mid-twenties/early thirties, then he grew up before the smart phone age, so he wouldn't have had an app that could just read text for him although he may have been able to have books scanned and use OCR software.
Beyond that, a lot of stuff would have been up to the individual teacher. Most public school teachers are really overwhelmed right now because our student loads are high and our schools are very poorly funded. A lot of teachers will move heaven and earth to see that all their students get what they need, especially if it's a good student like Matt. On the other hand, there are assholes everywhere, and some overworked teachers might view Matt as a thorn in the side, or just one more difficult task they don't need. The accommodations for having a blind student in class aren't too burdensome - you just need to be willing to talk out loud about anything you write on the board, describe diagrams in detail, etc. -- but I know some people in my building who would think that would be unreasonable (and it would require a substantial departure from how some math/science teachers work).
If you have more questions about the school system, or about blind students in general, let me know. I have a blind student coming into my English class next year, so I'm learning a lot about how to make a classroom accessible.