Special Education
Students with Visual Impairments
INTRODUCTION
If you are a classroom teacher who for the first time is about to have a student who is blind or has low vision, this guide can be helpful. Your new student is likely to be as excited and anxious as you are, and that energy can be used to create remarkable learning relationships in the classroom. Teachers who have had the opportunity to work with students with visual impairments say that they were enriched in surprising and positive ways and that their own teaching was enhanced by their experiences.
Your initial response to this new challenge may include feelings of anxiety, concern, and uncertainty. However, information and assistance are both available to you - you won't be meeting this challenge on your own! Almost always, a student who is visually impaired will come to you with a support system in place; and if not, this guide can direct you to specialists who can help form an educational team to work with you and your student.
Your "vision resource teacher" (sometimes called the itinerant teacher of the visually impaired) can assist you in doing a number of easy, practical, everyday things to help you meet your particular student's learning needs. Remember, though, it is your teaching knowledge and experience, your guidance and encouragement, that the student with a vision loss needs most from you.
This guide has been developed to provide you with basic information to ensure the student's successful integration into your classroom. Its sections represent the areas of importance identified by experienced classroom teachers and vision resource teachers. Preparing for students with a visual impairment requires:
- getting ready to talk with the student and parents in the first interview
- learning where to get help when you need it
- becoming aware of what changes may be necessary in your planning
- sharing responsibility for directing the student's educational program in cooperation with other professionals on the team
- getting to know your student and his or her needs and goals
Cooperative planning and positive communication in the first few days build the groundwork for the strong relationships needed for effective teaching and learning. Each member of the educational team brings special experience and expertise. By working together, you can create an intellectual, physical, social and emotional environment in which your student with vision loss can develop his/her potential. These team members can be called upon to provide assistance in planning or instruction as the need arises throughout the year.
Establishing this "care-full" network with your student at the start will lead naturally to thoughtful lesson planning, effective teaching, and fostering the student's development of skills, knowledge, communication, responsibility, self-reliance, self-esteem, and lifelong learning.
Often-asked questions as well as basic information, and teaching strategies are included in this guide to broaden your awareness of the feelings and the educational needs of your student with a visual impairment.
