SANTA ANA, Calif. — Learning at a distance has been an adjustment for everyone, but for those children with impairments and other disabilities, it can be even more difficult.

When kids were forced to learn from home because of the pandemic, Tania Morales, a teacher at the Blind Children's Learning Center in Santa Ana, worried about how her students would be able to continue to make progress.

"Typical kids, they learn using their eyes," said Morales. "They can see the world. Visually impaired kids use their hands to learn more about the world."

Children with visual impairments rely on learning tools they can touch. Without having access to the tactile learning tools on campus, the students, parents, and teachers were left in a position where so much depended on sight with everything going virtual. They couldn’t rely on just technology to bridge the gap.

Claudia A. is one of those parents who had to create an at-home learning environment while juggling work and a home life. Her 18-month-old daughter Sabrina was diagnosed with cerebral palsy in 2018.

“It was stressful because nothing beats in-person," said Claudia. "So it was a little bit hard to adjust, but the setup was pretty easy, the links were great, the teachers were pretty understanding and accommodated my limited environments.”

The center provided online learning and at-home kits for 200 families to be able to transform their homes into classrooms with tools, like touch-and-feel books and Braille letter blocks.

“I’m just very grateful that these teachers are so devoted to helping their students and their kids to flourish their love for learning,” Claudia said.

Morales and her students were able to return to the classroom in August in shifts and have been able to maintain their development thanks to the way the center made learning possible from a distance.

“Parents are very happy, too, because they notice progress on their kids," said Morales. "A lot of the kids have made lots of progress."

And as the center begins an enrichment program in November that will provide weekend, in-person learning opportunities for more kids in the community like theirs, Morales hopes that bringing awareness to her students will show people just how strong they are.

“It makes me very excited, very happy to see them do something that others didn’t believe of him or her doing it, and they prove them wrong. They show them that they can do it.”