Art education
Art education was an integral part of many of the earliest institutions for the blind, with the motivation for their curriculum being largely religious. For instance, industrial art education was introduced into the earliest English and Scottish asylums by their Protestant Christian founders from 1791. This curriculum was believed to provide religious enlightenment, and allow asylum residents to work their way to heaven. What can be referred to as fine art education for students who were blind or visually impaired was first recorded in Vienna by the educationalist Johann Wilhelm Klein. Klein trained people who were blind to carve crucifixes which, he believed, would prevent his students falling prey to what he felt was sexual deviance.