Developing the University Curriculum to Include CVI: A Work in Progress at the University of Arizona

Abstract

One of the most complex decisions of the first year of teaching for teachers of students with visual impairments is how to serve children with severe and multiple disabilities effectively. These children typically have a visual diagnosis of cerebral visual impairment (CVI), but their learning characteristics and needs go far beyond their use of vision. Over the past 30 years, university students in visual impairment have needed and received increased preparation to meet the needs of children with CVI. Like other universities, the University of Arizona has steadily incorporated more information about the visual needs of children with CVI into its curriculum to prepare teachers of students with visual impairments and orientation and mobility (OM the focus has expanded from study of the optical system to providing a broader understanding of the neurological system. For Dr. Topor, the works of Gordon Dutton and Lea Hyvarinen were particularly important as she reframed our curriculum; university students must now understand not only the variability of vision, but the reasons why children with CVI are more different from one another than are those with other visual conditions. To include this area in our curriculum means that students may spend a little less time learning about the anatomy of the eye and a little more time understanding how the eye and brain connect. In our teaching methods course, the balance has shifted slightly toward the ways in which children with significant multiple disabilities learn; these students are most often those with CVI. In addition to understanding the roots of CVI, future teachers must also learn to make difficult decisions related to intervention. Studies by Christine Roman, Amanda Lueck, Mary Morse, and others have been carefully examining students' behaviors and responses in order to document effects. However, teachers in practice often find that they have limited time in which to implement a consistent program, especially if they are itinerant; the child who makes little progress may need more intense intervention and a more meaningful context, or may not have the visual ability to respond visually regardless of intervention. The decisions about the extent and type of visual intervention are not clear cut, so how can we guide future teachers to make the best decisions? …