Time and Place of the Research

d. Description of Research Subject

1) The Teachers

The English teacher of SMP YKAB was Mr Sigit Wahyudi S,Pd. This fifty one years old man has been teaching at SMP YKAB since 1983. Even though

he taught English and Physic, his was not graduated from the department of any of those two. He was certified as Bahasa Indonesia teacher, and then took a program of special education for two years. Having more capability in English and Physic compared with the other teacher, he was trusted to teach those two subjects.

Monday, August 27 th 2012, a new English teacher arrived. Mr Wahyu, a forty seven years old man. Having graduated from the English department of UNS, he taught at the Assalam Islamic School. Several years ago, however, in 2008, due to a brain cancer attack, he lost his sight and stopped teaching. He stated .Today, he was positioned as English teacher at SMP YKAB, but due to the regulation, he had to wait until the next academic year to start teaching at classes.

The subject of the research is the seventh and eighth grade of SMP YKAB Surakarta. Some of them were totally blind, while some other were partially sighted, or better known as low vision. There were five students in the seventh, whose age was varied between thirteen and nineteen years old. In the eighth grade, there were four students. Agung was the youngest, fourteen years old, while the oldest was Wida, twenty years old.

There was a great interval between the ages of those students. The reason is because at the beginning of their blindness, they did not immediately start learning at the school. Some of them have to wait or move to Surakarta, to be able to start studying in SMP YKAB, which accommodates their special needs. From interview, it is known that many of those students came from other cities outside Central Java, such as Trenggalek or Ponorogo.

Another reason was many students, who were not blind from birth, had got

a condition of shock and depression that prevented them from socializing and obtaining education at school for the special needed. Mr Sigit, the English teacher, stated at an interview, that some of the students’ parents were too shy to put their special needed child to the special school. Eventually, however, they became conscious of the important of education to their child, and decided to let him/her child study at SMP YKAB.