By means of documentary evidence and six in-depth interviews, this paper traces policy and practice relating to the education of visually impaired children with learning difficulties from 1900 to 1970. It reveals that if visually impaired children with learning difficulties were given an education at all, their needs were not usually met and they were frequently subjected to an oppressive and abusive institutional regime. By giving visually impaired people with learning difficulties the opportunity to voice their experiences, it is hoped that this paper will add to the growing oral history of people with learning difficulties and further their empowerment. The data for this paper was extracted from a study of the history of education of visually impaired children in Britain.