An enlarged black-and-white photograph is displayed, showing Vinko Bek with his first blind student, Hinko Svoboda.

With a government permit to teach blind children and all the necessary teaching materials, including the Braille alphabet and a primer, Bek was able to begin educating blind students.

In March 1889, he published a notice in the daily press, offering to support and educate two blind children at his own expense. Only one blind boy, Hinko Svoboda, responded. Bek began teaching him in 1889, and within just four months, under Bek’s guidance, the boy mastered nearly the entire curriculum of the first grade of public school. Achieving such remarkable results, Bek decided to inform the public about his student’s success and organized a public exam at the Institute for the Deaf. The exam was a success, and Bek gained more supporters for the idea of educating the blind. However, in autumn of that same year, the boy moved to the Czech Republic with his parents, and Bek lost his first successful student.