Journal Of Visual Impairment & Blindness Research Articles

Effective Intervention through Collaboration: The Key to Success

In my many years (more than 44 now!) in the field of visual impairment as a teacher of students of visual impairments, an orientation and mobility specialist, an administrator, and a professor in personnel preparation, the one significant thing I have learned in each of these roles is the importance of collaboration with coworkers, team members, and families. No one individual can meet all the needs of any student with a visual impairment alone. Without collaboration, the effect of what we all do in the field of visual impairment, when working with either children or adults, is greatly reduced, and student outcomes are typically not met to the same degree as when everyone is engaged and working together. The goal of our work is ultimately to foster positive outcomes and successes in our students or clients, so why not collaborate as a team if that is what we all truly care about? We may be experts in our unique professional roles and skill sets, but there is little chance of generalization of what we teach if all members of the student's team are not on the same page and supporting the student and one another. The three practice contributions in this issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) address this collaboration in unique ways while also providing innovative ideas about how to work with diverse populations of students. Effective Collaboration Between Physical Therapists and Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments Who Are Working with Students Who Have Multiple Disabilities and Visual Impairments, by Erica Stearns, describes the importance of teachers of students with visual impairments and physical therapists working together to share expertise in both positioning and visual functioning. Examples are provided that show how each specialist benefits from the other's knowledge and skills. Stearns has the unique advantage of having worked in both the physical therapy and education arenas, so she is able to share her perspective on the importance of teachers of students with visual impairments collaborating with physical therapists from both vantage points, particularly when working with students with multiple impairments. The Practice Report by Allison Nannemann, Susan Bruce, and Andrea Covelli, Positive Behavior Supports for a Young Adult with CHARGE Syndrome, takes another approach to collaboration through describing how to use positive behavior supports for preventing or stopping challenging behaviors in students who are deafblind. The strategies used with a young adult with CHARGE syndrome included adult use of language, environmental engineering, and sensory-motor strategies. …

Why it is Important to Encourage Practicing Professionals to Become Authors

In February of 2009, the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) published the first articles under the heading of Practice Perspectives. These articles featured work by three professionals who described how they taught reading to children or adults. Trina Brichter of West Virginia, Charla Rose Houston of North Carolina, and Lisa Serino of Arizona described how they motivated their reluctant readers. Their articles were the first of more than 65 Practice Perspectives that have been submitted for publication by practicing professionals to describe their successful practices. The feature reflects the commitment of the American Foundation of the Blind (AFB) to address the interests of professionals who work daily with people who have visual impairments. Since the inception of Practice Perspectives, JVIB has also continued to publish Practice Reports, which describe systematic exploration of a question or issue related to practice. These last few years, it has been my good fortune to be JVIB's associate editor for practice. In that role have considered ways to encourage practicing professionals to become authors, so that these skilled professionals would share their insights into instructional practices that worked for them. Unlike many authors of full-length research articles, whose jobs require writing and research, practice authors write mainly because they have experiences or ideas to share with colleagues and the people they serve. Some authors e-mailed me or talked with me at conferences to say, I have an idea. Do you think this would make a good article? Others submitted their writing after reading the Information for JVIB Authors website at: . Most submissions were revised one or more times before publication, which is common for peer-reviewed professional articles. For many authors, the peer review process was daunting: most did not have prior experience with an anonymous reviewer reading their material, but they accepted and sometimes welcomed the suggestions of outside reviewers as well as my own recommendations. As a retired faculty member from The University of Arizona, now experiencing another retirement from my role as practice editor of JVIB, sometimes reflect on the trail that our professional field has traveled since entered the field of visual impairment in the 1970s. Topics that have been addressed by recent practice features speak to the degree to which the world of practicing professionals in visual impairment has changed since entered it in 1972. The 1970s marked a time when legislative foundations created a new world of opportunity for people with disabilities, including those with visual impairments. Families of children with visual impairments no longer had to exert time and energy to convince their educational systems to allow their students to enter public schools and to receive an appropriate education after the passage of Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Legislative policy established equal opportunities for individuals with and without disabilities, supported by team planning with families and individualized goals for each student. As a teacher at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, remember both the anticipation and concern about the goals recommended at those first meetings with teams and families--my first lEPs (Individualized Education Programs) were more than 20 pages long! Several recent practice authors have described the outcomes and challenges of implementing current systems of planning and service delivery, the foundations of which were created by this early legislation. Craig Phillips, Jeri Hile, and Traci Jardes described professional collaboration that effectively supported the team of a young man with deaf-blindness (2013). Superintendent William Daugherty of Texas School for the Blind (2014) described changes in their systems that created a strengthened linkage between the school and statewide educational agencies. …

Guest Editor's Page

There are about 4 million older people in the United States who are blind or have severe vision impairment. This population is expected to double over the next 35 years to exceed 10 million. Among people who are older and have vision loss, there are some things we know very well: visual impairment is associated with age and, therefore, it is more prevalent in the oldest age groups. Vison impairment is more likely to affect women, racial or ethnic minorities, people who are poor, and people who have less education. Older people with vision loss report poorer health-related quality of life, they are more likely to report chronic conditions than their peers who are not visually impaired, they are more likely to fall and have injuries related to those falls, and older people with vision impairments have higher rates of mortality. Given the magnitude and complexity of the problem, this population is poorly served. People with vision loss have less access to eye care, medical care, and oral health care. Significant gaps remain in access to rehabilitation services, and the rehabilitation system remains fragmented; is poorly funded, with little third-party funding; has few standards of practice, few outcome measures; and is not linked to vision and eye care providers in a systematic way. If the past is a prologue, then the coming decades will see these disparities magnified, with hundreds of thousands or millions of older people without the ability to obtain quality vision rehabilitation services, good health, and high quality of life. Given the problems we can identify, all of them can be solved or greatly ameliorated with the knowledge we have. Although difficult to manage, these problems are not intractable. The field of vision rehabilitation has lamented for decades the fragmentation in service delivery and funding, and the apparent inability to compete with other disciplines. At the same time, others have anticipated the surging population of older people that is now driven by the first wave of aging baby boomers. What can be done? This Special Issue on Aging and Vision of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) demonstrates the continuing commitment of leaders in vision rehabilitation to make a difference in the lives of older people with visual impairments. These examples are instructive and promising. Farrow and Steverson, for example, report on the funding for the older blind program, and they summarize the number of people served and the cost of services. The results are not encouraging insofar that the demand in all probability outstrips the capacity to provide services. As Sheffield and Rogers note in their commentary, only about 2% of older people with vision impairment receive vision rehabilitation services of any kind. In spite of funding constraints, novel and innovative strategies are emerging. Current and emerging telemedicine-like technology has the potential to revolutionize access to eye care. Ihrig, for example, demonstrates an example of how telemedicine strategies can reach underserved or remote populations. …

Aging and Vision Advocates Unite to Move the Bar for Older Persons who Are Visually Impaired: A Call to Action

Almost two decades ago, the following information on the development of a national agenda on vision and aging was published in the From the Field section of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB): ... the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the National Aging and Vision Network have launched the development of a national agenda on vision and aging. The concept of a national agenda began with a survey that AFB's National Aging Program team sent to National Aging and Vision Network members in December 1997.... [A]t the March 1998 Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute, aging work-group participants, comprised of professionals and consumers, worked on identifying critical issues for the agenda to address (National Agenda on Vision and Aging, 1998, p. 850). The issues identified at the conference became a list of goals, which had the intended purpose of shaping public policies and attitudes in order to ensure the full participation in society of individuals aged 55 years and older. The goals of the agenda were: * develop a self-advocacy skills training curriculum for inclusion in vision rehabilitation programs serving older persons who are visually impaired; * increase public awareness about age-related vision loss and vision-related services; * carry out advocacy efforts to increase federal funding for the Title VII, Chapter 2 Program of the Rehabilitation Act (Independent Living Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind [OIB]); * increase the supply of qualified personnel providing vision rehabilitation services to older individuals who are visually impaired; * expand access to employment opportunities for older persons with visual impairments; and * promote the coordination of data collection and outcome measurement efforts, which support the targeted goals of increased consumer self-advocacy, greater public awareness of vision rehabilitation services, sufficient funding for services, increased supply of qualified personnel, and expanded access to information and community resources. OUTCOMES OF THE FIRST NATIONAL AGENDA ON VISION AND AGING By 2005, the National Aging and Vision Network (formed by AFB) accomplished two objectives from the third goal of the agenda on vision and aging (Orr, Scott, & Rogers, 2005): * achieve the $13 million threshold established by Congress in the Rehabilitation Act as the trigger level for Chapter 2 formula funding to ensure that each state receives a minimum level of funding; and * achieve a funding level of at least $26 million for the Title VII, Chapter 2 program, a funding level established by state agency directors as the base amount needed to establish a nationwide service delivery program. These achievements established a framework to fund a nationwide service delivery program, ensuring money for every state to provide OIB services. Although the Aging and Vision Network worked diligently toward its goal, since 2005, no united effort has been sustained. Thus, it is time to renew the call to action to meet the needs of millions of aging baby boomers who are losing vision at a time when national, state, and local resources are stretched and overwhelmed. With the exception of stimulus funding, the OIB program has received approximately the same amount of funding annually, and the numbers of individuals being served by this program appear to be declining. During fiscal year 2005, 63,766 individuals were served with a federal allocation of $33,227,040 (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). According to the Rehabilitation Services Administration's 2012 report, only 67,273 individuals nationwide benefited from independent living services provided through this program (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). The latest published reports (2013) indicate that 59,133 received services (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). …

Book Review: This Mattered to Me: “Essential Experiences to Undergird the Early Development of Literacy

Essential Experiences to Undergird the Early Development of Literacy, by Alan J. Koenig and Carol Farrenkopf, published in the January-February 1997 issue of Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 91, Number 1, pp. 14-24. The Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) allows professionals to be lifelong learners. For as a teacher of students with visual impairments, JVIB is the main artery through which I learn about evidence-based practices. With the JVIB archive, it is possible to reread remarkably interesting articles that consist of timeless information that is still capable of affecting professionals years after the original publication. The article, Essential Experiences to Undergird the Early Development of Literacy, by Alan J. Koenig and Carol Farrenkopf, served as an instructional springboard in my practice and influenced how I delivered hands-on, experience-based learning. It has been over 10 years, but I still remember the moment vividly: I asked a then 9-year-old boy with congenital blindness about the color of a banana that was peeled and ready to eat. He sat for a moment, then answered, You know, I don't know. On other occasions, I found it necessary to describe in great detail to him the unique relationship between a cat and a dog or a bird and a cat. These conversations and many others typically interrupted standard, scripted reading lessons taken from a common braille curricula, but each were springboards to many teachable moments. These scenarios occurred often while I was teaching braille reading to Kindergarten through high school students at a residential school for blind students, and I was frequently reminded that incidental knowledge that is taken in visually by sighted people must be strategically taught to students who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision). Not long after the above-mentioned I was offered the inspiring opportunity to lead a self-contained class for visually impaired preschoolers. Feeling the weight of the responsibility to guide the concept development of the children, I turned to a trusted and respected colleague for assistance. In her wisdom, she referred me to read the article I chose to highlight in this essay. The article mattered to me, because it helped to empower me with examples of what to expose the children to, which then prompted me with ideas of how to involve the children in as many experiences as possible in order to facilitate future reading successes. Specifically, I referred to Table 4, Supporting experiences and specific words or concepts collapsed across grades, by experience, within the article and selected different global experiences, which are typically learned through activities of daily living. I then assigned one experience to each month of preschool. Once an experience was designated for a given month, I then selected vocabulary, textures, letters, nursery rhymes, books, and class field trips centered on the theme. …

Book Review: “Helen Keller: A Remembrance,”

Helen Keller: A Remembrance, by Berthold Lowenfeld, originally published in the May 1980 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 74, Number 5, pp. 169-174. Recommended by Simon Hayhoe I have not had time for real heroes for about 30 years now. However, as my hunger for heroes died out in adulthood, my need for influences from the world I inhabited did not. I think it is fair to say that it is part of our human condition to need guidance from others and to see ourselves in relation to others in our social groups. As humans, we need to create identities from our societies, and how we see our influences is an important element of these identities (Berger & Luckmann, 2016). Beyond acts of worship, the people who influence us become the stimuli of our contemporary thinking. This relationship is perhaps an appeal of being a researcher, writer, or teacher: it is the ideal of being an influence on others and therefore the social world we inhabit. It is also a legacy we leave for future societies. Berthold Lowenfeld and his brother Viktor were two such influencers on my research and teaching on blindness. Viktor Lowenfeld, a trained sculptor, taught art in Vienna's school for the blind in the 1930s, using this experience to write influential works on this topic (Lowenfeld, 1934, 1951). He went on to become one of the most influential mainstream art educators in the United States after leaving Austria for England and the United States during the rise of National Socialism. As a professor of art education, Viktor Lowenfeld continued to draw reference from art by students with visual impairments (that is, blindness or low vision) in his influential book, Creative and Mental Growth (Lowenfeld, 1987). Yet, despite his important work, it was Berthold Lowenfeld that had a greater influence on the education of visually impaired students in the 20th century. Berthold Lowenfeld was a teacher of visually impaired students. Like his brother, he also left Vienna for America during the rise of National Socialism. In Vienna, he trained as a teacher of students with visual impairments under some of the most influential philosophers of his time--something he discusses in the article I chose to highlight in this essay, Helen Keller: A Remembrance, which was originally published in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) in 1980. From there, his life became dedicated to promoting, developing, and, most of all, understanding the educational potential of all visually impaired children. Unlike Viktor, he did not restrict himself to a single teaching topic or a single discipline of study. In his understanding of blindness, Berthold Lowenfeld always took a holistic approach. He understood that blindness was not just a physical condition, and that visually impaired people are not only influenced by the physical condition of their eyes. Consequently, his writing on blindness covered a spectrum of topics. These topics included the historical understanding of blindness, the social condition of visually impaired people, perceptual psychology, pedagogy, and the arts. He was also perhaps the most important writer to talk about the psychological and educational differences between early and late onset of visual impairment. …

Guest Editor's Page

When I was approached to serve as guest editor for the Special Issue on Critical Issues of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), I had not yet announced my retirement. Now that I am retired, editing this issue has been an amazing experience, both in learning how JVIB reviews and selects articles, and in learning that my career is not quite over. I thank JVIB's editors-in-chief, Diane Wormsley and Sandra Lewis; the Editorial Advisory Board; and Rebecca Burrichter, JVIB's senior editor, for believing I could do this, and for helping me to do it. This issue does not reflect the universe of critical issues in blindness and visual impairment, nor could it hope to do so. I had anticipated many more responses to the call for papers, but nevertheless what you will find within this issue is a microcosm of what people are concerned about today. Holding the privilege of guest editorship allows me to write about my own soapbox issue--research--in rehabilitation, special education, and early intervention services. Although I specifically address educational research, because that is my experience, students with visual impairments inevitably graduate into the rehabilitation system. The issue affects all of us in the field of visual impairment. Unlike larger special education fields, visual impairment has no research institutes, no research-dedicated faculty, and very few organizations that are able to support a systematic program of research. Scientifically based research for infants, children, and youths with vision loss is notoriously underfunded, understaffed, and often overlooked. Although the complexities of conducting research with low-prevalence populations--small samples, geographic dispersion, inappropriate or inadequate comparison groups, and heterogeneous subjects--do indeed pose huge barriers for researchers, these issues are not insurmountable. Of greater concern is a crumbling research base that no longer applies to a changing population and a special education faculty who are facing multiple responsibilities that leave little time to engage in a program of inquiry. As a consequence, the field of visual impairment has little hard evidence to support the methodologies and practices it implements on a daily basis. The foundation of research in this field is built on case studies, anecdotal reports, individual philosophies, common sense, intuition, clinical practice, and word-of-mouth. Although these traditions are valuable, they are insufficient for today's educational environment. We know what we need to do, but we do not always know why we need to do it, or how, or even if it is the best procedure to use. Without evidence to support and validate our work, we cannot even be sure that what we do is beneficial to the children and families we strive to serve. Those of us in the field of visual impairment remain a kind of folk art, working in isolation in a cultural tradition based on intuition and clinical practice instead of acting as a profession that continuously renews itself by pursuing new knowledge and establishing research-based practices. Although the field of visual impairment has a long, impressive body of literature, the capacity to conduct scientifically based research with interventions and comparison groups has been largely unfulfilled. A series of literature searches conducted collaboratively by the fellows of the National Center on Leadership in Visual Impairment documented that less than 1% (n = 16) of peer-reviewed intervention studies met the criteria for scientifically based research--see the definition at [section] 9101(37)(B) of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001). Other analyses have found similar results. Significantly, no two studies have investigated the same outcomes using the same independent or dependent variables. Only one study has ever been replicated (Mason, 2012). Interventions cannot meet evidence standards unless they have been tested by multiple researchers with different groups of children and in various settings. …

Getting There: Advocating for Access to Community-based Orientation and Mobility Instruction

Many readers of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) are also parents of school-aged children. As a parent, imagine for a moment that you receive a telephone call from a teacher at your child's school, who says, We'd like to have your child go out with a trained professional to learn how to travel better in the community. You would probably have many questions: Who is the person who will be with my child? Can that person ensure my child's safety? What if they are near busy streets and areas where there are strange people? Why does my child need this type of instruction? You might also wonder whether your child will miss important activities in the classroom and whether learning to travel independently will encourage your child to take too many risks. Finally, you might question whether it is really the school's job to teach children to travel; as a parent, you have taught many travel skills incidentally as your child grows older and your family travels in the community or to unfamiliar places. Professionals who work with people with visual impairments understand the importance of instruction in how to travel in the community at large. Given the significance of such travel, it is easy to overlook the reality that community-based travel instruction is very different from other things taught in schools: Learning to travel requires a child to leave campus regularly with an adult who is not the regular classroom teacher, travel to some lessons by car, go to places where traffic conditions may pose risks, and learn through physical activity instead of through reading, listening, or watching. Although there is now research-based evidence of a link between competence in independent travel and future employment, gathered through analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (McDonnall, 2011; Cmar, 2015; Wolffe & Kelly, 2011), it can still be difficult to convince school administrators, parents, and sometimes students themselves of the importance of targeted instruction in community travel. This month's Practice Perspectives, Contradictory Instruction of Orientation and Mobility within Virginia's Schools, by Valery Kircher-Herrin, describes the inconsistency of instruction in community-based travel among schools in Virginia. Although both state and federal legislation cited by the author support instruction in this area as recommended by the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team, Ms. …

Book Review: “Religious Beliefs of Parents of Children with Visual Impairments

Religious Beliefs of Parents of Children with Visual Impairments, by Jane N. Erin, Dale Rudin, and Michael Njoroge, published in the April 1991 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 85, Number 4, pp. 157-162. About 15 years ago, I read a thought-provoking article in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), entitled Religious Beliefs of Parents of Children with Visual Impairments, by Jane N. Erin, Dale Rudin, and Michael Njoroge. At the time, I had just begun my master's studies at the University of Arizona and formal training to become a teacher of students with visual impairment, a milestone that also marked my introduction to JVIB. Prior to graduate school, I had worked in the field of visual impairment for over five years at two completely dissimilar and unequal residential schools. I was a paraeducator for the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI), in Austin, and a Peace Corps volunteer for the Organization Alaouite pour la Protection des Aveugles (OAPAM) [Alawite Organization for the Protection of the Blind], in Fez, Morocco. While TSBVI offered students a swimming pool, bowling alley, and specialized running track, the children at OAPAM were surprisingly skilled at playing soccer using a balled-up piece of braille paper. In addition to a lack of recreational facilities, unfortunately, the goodhearted teachers at OAPAM also received very little training to teach students with visual impairments. Even though religious affiliation varies between the United States and Morocco, the influence of religion on beliefs about disability is universal. When parents first learn that their child is visually impaired, their expectations for the child's future often feel crushed. The authors of the article I chose to highlight in this essay aptly note that the diagnosis of visual impairment can destabilize parents' religious beliefs. In a survey of 161 parents of children with visual impairments, immediately after their children's births, 20% felt that the presence of visual impairment was punishment from God. This percentage decreased to 5% as time passed. The authors suggested that parents might undergo a temporary shift in religious beliefs, which is a natural early stage of the grieving process that individuals often experience when confronted with visual impairments. The authors made clear that the voices of parents are crucial ones to listen to, and they encouraged practitioners to engage in dialogue with parents about their needs: The professional who questions or criticizes a family's belief system, even when those beliefs seem to contradict an educational goal, risks losing the trust and cooperation of family members (p. 161). Early in my career as a paraeducator at TSBVI, I had an experience that illustrates the importance of listening to families and compromise as described in the article. I worked with a young, energetic African American boy with deafblindness. His grandmother was his legal guardian, and she communicated to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team that she wanted her grandson to learn to be able to sit quietly for church service. Rather than dismiss her concern, the educational team developed strategizes to gradually increase his time in quiet, seated engagement with a few favorite toys. This skill, of course, helped him with other tasks that involved sitting calmly, in particular during long bus rides to and from school. This article also resonated with me, because I was introduced to it soon after my Peace Corps assignment. A major responsibility of a Peace Corps volunteer is to build cross-cultural understanding and share the knowledge and experience gained from the host country service. …

Different Paths to Success: An Individualized Approach to Effective Teaching

After giving a presentation at a recent conference, I left with an uneasy feeling that some teachers in the audience were hoping to learn the one best way to teach their students. Perhaps everyone who teaches wants to discover exactly how to teach a skill, whether it be braille reading or finding a travel destination. However, this hope can obscure the reality that the best way to learn is not the same for every learner. There can be many good ways to teach a skill, and they may all be effective with different learners, under different conditions. As an example, consider the range of ways in which people typically accomplish a routine task like washing dishes. If you ask friends and colleagues how they wash dishes, you will hear many opinions. Some people wash by hand in the hottest water they can bear, and some insist on using a sponge instead of a dishcloth. Proponents of dishcloths and dishtowels swear by the fact that they wash and dry dishes as their mothers did, defending their choice by the fact that cloth can be tossed into the washer after several uses. Still others believe that only an automatic dishwasher can produce water hot enough to kill germs, and often they rinse every dish before loading the machine. In spite of these strongly-held beliefs, most of us lead full lives that are largely unaffected by our varied choices of dishwashing techniques, aside from occasional debates with family members or roommates. So it is with the methods we use as instructors. A skilled instructor recognizes that a variety of methods can be used to teach a skill. Different approaches may be used, with variations in materials, setting, physical adaptations, motivating factors, and pacing. The best teaching method may be different for individual learners and under various conditions. This issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) includes a triad of practice items that remind us that one size does not fit all when it comes to teaching. Two Practice Perspectives articles relate the experiences of two teachers who used Diane Wormsley's I-M-ABLE approach, which incorporates meaning and motivation into braille reading instruction. Rachel Schles, a teacher of students with visual impairments in Falls Church, Virginia, describes her successes with Ajay, a boy with autism and decreasing vision, for whom English was a second language. Her success in teaching him braille was clearly related to the use of an approach that allowed her to shape instruction around Ajay's unique characteristics and preferences: he was interested in a tape measure, which became one of his early vocabulary words, and he was motivated to write, so much of his early learning focused on writing stories that focused on meaning rather than precise spelling. Similarly, Jill McMillan, a teacher from Morrisville, North Carolina, had success in teaching her student Kay through the I-MABLE method because the approach could be adapted to the student's individual needs and interests. …

Guest Editors’ Page

In this special issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), Service Delivery Models in Education: Specialized Schools and Itinerant Programs, readers will be challenged to examine a range of programs and models that meet the unique educational needs of students with visual impairments, including students with additional disabilities. It is our intent that the articles included in this issue will motivate professionals to reach beyond the status quo and consider innovative approaches and strategies for providing services to students with vision loss. The field of education for students with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) has had a long and progressive history. It was one of the first among disability groups to include its students in general education classes. Since the 19th century, youngsters who are visually impaired have been educated in specialized schools for blind students. As families and educators recognized the importance of having their students closer to home, a range of educational options for integrating these students into their communities and local schools began to emerge in the middle of the 20th century. With the advent of Public Law 94-142 in 1975, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, it became a mandate that students with disabilities needed to be educated in the least restrictive environment alongside their nondisabled peers. Professionals in the field of visual impairment embraced the concept of a continuum of service delivery models from most restrictive to least restrictive, depending on the individual educational needs of students. However, in the 1990s, there was an advocacy movement to eliminate the continuum of placement options requirement in the law and place all students with disabilities in general education classes with support. The blindness community overwhelmingly rejected this perspective, affirming that due to the diversity of the characteristics of students and the unique educational needs among students with visual impairments, multiple models of service delivery were essential to providing these students with the education they needed. In addition, forward-thinking leaders created the National Agenda for Educating Children and Youths with Visual Impairments, Including Those with Additional Disabilities. This document created a framework for establishing quality service delivery and program models for educating students with visual impairments. In this special issue, readers will find evidence of the changing roles of specialized schools, particularly as these roles relate to working more closely with students who are being educated in general education environments. There is an example of this evolution in Daughtery's descriptions of the programs of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Readers will also find an examination of students being educated in general education classes in Sweden and the successes and challenges that occur, particularly in relation to students with additional disabilities. Other articles address professional development, shared services, and examples of teaching models for the expanded core curriculum in the areas of recreation and leisure, technology, and career education. Although most students with visual impairments in the United States receive instructional services via an itinerant model, as guest editors of this Special Issue on Service Delivery, we were surprised to find a small number of submissions related to this model. Anecdotally, we know of the great work that is being done by teachers of students with visual impairments with respect to the instruction of braille and assistive technology. We also recognize the challenges that exist with the itinerant model: large caseloads, limited time to provide quality instruction, and lack of qualified personnel to provide services to students with visual impairments. We had hoped to have submissions that detailed innovative strategies and the challenges that itinerant professionals face in their work. …

This Mattered to Me

Health-Related Fitness of Children Who Are Visually Impaired, by Lauren J. Lieberman and Elaine McHugh, published in the May 2001 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 95, Number 5, pp. 272-287. Recommended by Patricia Leader Fitness for children is an ongoing and increasing crisis in the United States, and it is even more critical for children with visual impairments. I have observed this crisis since I began my teaching career in the 1970s, and I have witnessed little improvement in this area in the school systems. I discovered the Lieberman and McHugh article in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), which addresses this issue through a research study, and it sheds some light on the subject. The data and discussion included in the article support and validate what I have observed in my career. The authors summarize the issue of fitness for children with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) with seven recommendations, which remain relevant today. I found their results interesting, and I feel they will stimulate professionals and families to take action. INCLUSION THAT STOPS AT THE GYMNASIUM DOOR A few years after I began my career, I found myself on a middle school campus. I discovered that children with special needs were provided with adapted physical education, by a specialist. This arrangement appeared to meet the students' needs; however, these students--with visual impairments, as well as those with other disabling conditions--received no physical education services when the adapted physical education specialist was not on campus. The students sat in the school office or library while their peers attended physical education classes. At a time when integration and mainstreaming were at the forefront of education, it did not seem appropriate for these students to be excluded from physical education. I approached the administration and asked that my students be allowed to participate in physical education as long as I, and my support staff members, accompanied them. This request began a campaign at my school to encourage students with visual impairments to be physically active, and to help them develop lifetime recreational skills. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REMOVING BARRIERS The authors of the article that Mattered to Me make recommendations for removing the barriers faced by children with visual impairments to becoming physically active. They promote introduction to movement in early life, to set the stage for healthy activity. This recommendation is relevant today, as it is essential for young children to be encouraged to explore and move in order to achieve developmental milestones. It is critical to teach children with visual impairments about physical activities, which they are unable to learn incidentally. The authors point out the fact that healthy patterns of activity at an early age can have a lifelong effect. In addition to encouraging movement, educators and parents also need to help children with visual impairments establish appropriate cardiovascular fitness levels. The article challenges educators to instruct parents, caregivers, teaching staff members, and coaches in community sports programs about the abilities of children with visual impairments. …

Guest Editor's Page

People with or without disabilities seek satisfaction in their lives. It is through employment, in large part, that many are able to achieve that outcome. Jobs enable individuals to earn money, meet others with similar interests and talents, and contribute meaningfully to the larger society and the economic security of the nation within which they live. Over the last century, there have been impressive advances in society--legislatively, technologically, and socially--that have benefited people with disabilities. In most countries, individuals who are blind or have low vision can receive educations, marry and have families, own properties, vote, and earn money; in other words, live typical lives. Many countries provide special education and rehabilitation services to support the integration of people with visual impairments. Some countries have legislation that protects the civil liberties of people with vision loss, including their right to seek work and participate in community activities. Some also make provisions to offset the expenses associated with adaptations to the environment or acquisition of tools and technology to facilitate employment and work-related activities such as training. However, employment has proven to be an elusive goal for people with visual impairments throughout the world, as indicated in the articles and reports included in this issue. What is causing the overall statistics regarding employment for people with visual impairments to be so unimpressive? Although the articles collected in this issue provide some insight into what works and what can seemingly be done to improve the employment situation, they have only scratched the surface. Professionals, in partnership with people who are blind or have low vision and their families need to work together and evaluate what is currently being taught in special education and rehabilitation programs and further analyze the factors contributing to successful outcomes and what competent individuals and their families bring to the equation to find the best way forward, since what has been done to this point has not been sufficient or satisfactory. When promising programs or possible correlations between factors that seem to enhance the likelihood of success are discovered, they must be replicated empirically to determine the validity of using the approach in many environments. Then the observations and findings must be shared broadly--to encourage others to do likewise. Serious effort needs to be put into hiring and promoting competent individuals who are visually impaired, and other prospective employers need to be made aware of successes in that area. Whatever your role is in the transition and employment of youths and adults with visual impairments, this October-November Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) Special Issue on Transition and Employment is intended to provide you with information that will help you adjust your own work and improve outcomes. The authors of the lead articles in this issue attempted to find characteristic behavioral and societal patterns that enabled the participants studied to achieve and maintain employment in a developing country. The articles describe the quantifiable and then the qualitative results of a study of employed Nigerians. The information shared in these articles can be used by professionals to help others in similar situations achieve employment. The following three articles address the impact of rehabilitation services on employment outcomes for adults with visual impairments. Steinman and his colleagues share their investigation into what associations might exist regarding employment outcomes and disability-specific rehabilitation agencies with decision-making control over policies and procedures and general-disability agencies without such authority. Geisen and Cavenaugh report on the individual and economic factors that seem to impact employment outcomes achieved by Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries (that is, adults with work experience) who have completed rehabilitation services. …

This Mattered to Me

A Survey of the Current Status of Visually Impaired Students in Secondary Mathematics, by Donald W. Rapp and Audrey J. Rapp, originally published in the February 1992 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 86, pp. 115-117. When I was asked to take on this project and pick one single article that mattered to me, I found it to be very difficult. I have read The series editor of This Mattered to Me is Stuart H. Wittenstein, Ed.D., superintendent of the California School for the Blind. hundreds of articles from the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) that have had an impact on my professional career. Like many in the field of visual impairment, I have an array of professional teaching and research interests. Thus, picking just one article on one area of was quite difficult. After much thought, I decided to go back to my roots as an educator: secondary mathematics. My first job was at the Alabama School for the Blind as its secondary mathematics teacher, and it was during my time there that I began a never-ending search for any and all information related to teaching mathematics to students with visual impairments. During this search, I discovered the JVIB article, A Survey of the Current Status of Visually Impaired Students in Secondary Mathematics, by Donald W. Rapp and Audrey J. Rapp, which included the findings of a questionnaire that was answered by teachers of students with visual impairments. Timeless research When I first read the Rapp and Rapp article, it was already eight years old, but it was the only data that existed at that time that discussed the types of mathematics that were being taught to secondary students with visual impairments. The authors conducted a simple survey of teachers of students with visual impairments in six New England states. The survey included questions on which secondary mathematics courses the teachers' students were taking, how the students were aided in their general education mathematics courses, and what tools they utilized. The most profound aspect of the article was the finding that of the 40 students who were reported as using braille as their primary literacy medium, only 19 (over half) were not enrolled in typical secondary mathematics courses. From this finding, one can surmise that either a large proportion of the students studied had cognitive disabilities in addition to their visual impairment that inhibited their abilities to take secondary mathematics courses or that their IEP (Individualized Education Program) teams did not push them to enroll in higher mathematics courses. Although cognitive disabilities may have ruled out higher mathematics for a number of these students, I suspect the latter is true. In my experience in the field of visual impairment, unfortunately, I do not believe that conditions have improved since this article was published. Let this study serve as a reminder that students who are blind need to be encouraged to enroll in higher mathematics courses. The article also highlighted the need for increased teacher training in braille. I was moved by the fact that 73% of the teachers who responded to the survey expressed interest in a workshop to review concepts of algebra, geometry and algebra II, with application of the Nemeth Code (p. …

Guest Editors’ Page

Issues related to vision and the brain have been moving to the forefront of medical, educational, and rehabilitation services for children and adults with vision impairment over the past 10 years. In our commentary, covering some 60 years, we address the relatively recent increase in the numbers of children and adults with vision conditions related to brain injury, which parallel developments occurring when our professional field began, and when large numbers of wounded veterans returned blinded from combat during World War II. Then as now, professionals who work with children and adults with new, emerging causes of vision loss needed exposure to curricula containing relevant information. Today the challenge is to provide information and skills relevant to the interplay between the brain and vision to meet the needs of a burgeoning population. A number of faculty have provided perspectives in this issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) on the extent to which this material has been included in their programs, and they have highlighted the challenges associated with them. Terminology is also a significant issue that must be considered by the medical, rehabilitation, and special education communities. Terminology affects the identification of conditions and those who experience them, qualification for services, and data collection methods. It can also affect the ways in which education and rehabilitation treatment options and programs are developed, as well as the content of personnel preparation programs and the types of personnel preparation programs that must address issues related to vision and the brain. The commentary by Colenbrander in this issue of the journal addresses terminology. For the remainder of this editorial, we will use the terms CVI/ABI (cerebral visual impairment/acquired brain injury) to refer to visual impairment and visual dysfunction due to brain injury (including traumatic brain injury, TBI) in children and adults. This special issue of JVIB contains articles that address many of the challenges confronting today's practitioner. Lueck's commentary examines changes in our understanding of the nature of CVI in children. The slow emergence of multidisciplinary services that address CVI/ABI has made it difficult for many to find appropriate, comprehensive assistance. The impact of CVI/ABI on families and access to appropriate services comes to the foreground in the article by Jackel and colleagues. Assessment provides the basis for these services, and the article by Newcomb discusses one assessment tool developed to evaluate the traditional hallmarks of cortical visual impairment in children. Changes over time seen in children with cortical visual impairment using this instrument are discussed in the Research Report by Roman Lantzy and Lantzy. Intervention is another major concern for adults and children with CVI/ABI. Lam and his colleagues present a case study that includes intervention recommendations for a child with near-normal visual acuity but whose brain injury still leads to visual processing difficulties that severely affect functional vision. Relevant to adults, Kingston and colleagues present a case study from assessment to intervention that reflects a model program under development at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center in Palo Alto, California. This presentation emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary teams and the impact of multifaceted forms of assessment and interventions on maximizing outcomes. Now that we have mentioned the range of topics that are included in this special issue, topics that cover a great deal of ground, we would like to discuss areas that have not been covered. We do this to emphasize the broad scope of material that must be addressed as our field develops an evidenced-based body of knowledge that leads to adequate and appropriate services for children and adults with CVI/ABI. …

This Mattered to Me

Teaching Strategies of the van Dijk Curricular Approach, by Stephanie Z. C. MacFarland, published in the May-June 1995 Special Issue on Deaf-Blindness of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 89, Number 3, pp. 222-228. When Dr. MacFarland's article appeared in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) in 1995, I was ecstatic that she presented Dr. van Dijk's theories and curricular approach for learners with deaf-blindness in such a comprehensive, concise, and lucid manner. I had met Dr. van Dijk in the 1970s, had attended several workshops he conducted in the United States, and had read many of his writings that had originated in the Netherlands. Until Dr. MacFarland's outstanding article was published in JVIB, no single piece of writing existed that clearly explained Dr. van Dijk's theoretical principles and provided concrete instructional strategies that would be beneficial to educators of learners with dual sensory impairments across the world. This article MATTERED TO ME, because the author based it on her actual experiences observing Dutch educators who were trained in Dr. van Dijk's theories and curricular approach. At that time, Dr. van Dijk was the director of the deaf-blind program at the St. Raphael School in Sint Michielsgestel, the Netherlands. Dr. MacFarland was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and spent a year in the Netherlands doing research for her doctorate under Dr. van Dijk's mentorship. The article MATTERS TO ME now, because I was fortunate to visit the deaf-blind Program in the Netherlands twice during the present decade, and Dr. MacFarland's article further confirmed the validity of the principles and strategies I observed during my travels. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THEORY-DRIVEN STRATEGIES This article should MATTER TO YOU, especially if you work with learners with multiple impairments. It is replete with examples of the practical application of Dr. van Dijk's theory-driven strategies. This practical information alone warrants the article being preserved digitally for posterity in JVIB Online. The strategies outlined in this article can be used as guidelines for providing appropriate instruction and are aligned with the highest level of promising practices that we educators try to attain in the field today, such as augmentative and alternative communication, positive behavioral interventions and supports for challenging behaviors. This article is also a valuable required resource for the students in my program at Hunter College, and my students have observed their mentor teachers using the suggested strategies during their student teaching experience. Dr. van Dijk's curricular approach provides us with a starting point for implementing systematic teaching approaches to enhance interactions, communication, conceptualization, and meaningful activities for learners with deaf-blindness in a variety of placements (such as at home, at school, and in the community). Although it was originally written for those who work with individuals with deaf-blindness, I feel that the information included in the article has much wider applicability for use with learners with other multiple disabilities including autism, cognitive disabilities, and severe challenging behaviors. …

Sharing Resources, Forming Partnerships, and Fighting for What's Right in a Tough Economy

In these difficult economic times we hear many cliches about how challenges create opportunities: When one door closes another opens, for example; and, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. These platitudes are all well and good, but how do these traditional ways of putting a positive spin on hard times really translate into new ideas and new possibilities? For the Council of Schools for the Blind (COSB), turning challenges into opportunities has meant deepening relationships with stakeholder groups such as organized blind groups, parent organizations, and professional resources, as well as forging new alliances with groups that share COSB's values, beliefs, and concerns. JVIB INITIATIVE At a recent meeting, the 45 member schools of COSB formally recognized that the single greatest source of information for cutting-edge research of the field of visual impairment and blindness is the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), which translates scholarly research into practical strategies that can be used in the classroom or in other settings. In order to support this vital resource at a time when budgets are tight, the COSB membership recently voted to supply a monetary donation to assist JVIB with its operational expenses. Although COSB's grant represents a very small percentage of the annual cost of publishing JVIB, the members of COSB and I are hopeful that others will join us in support of the journal--whether by subscribing or by giving similar donations. The field of visual impairment and blindness has benefited from JVIB's resources for over 100 years. It seems natural for all of us to assure the journal's success into the future by supporting JVIB and the valuable literature of the field by subscribing, encouraging others to subscribe, or donating funds. ACB SCHOOLS FOR THE BLIND TASK FORCE The American Council of the Blind (ACB) recently recognized that the current economic downturn has led to threats against schools for the blind in many states--severe budget cutbacks, radical changes in governance, and even closures have been proposed by state departments and legislatures. One school has already been closed: The Oregon School for the Blind closed in September 2009 after 135 years of providing high-quality services to Oregon's children with visual impairments (see the August 2009 From the Field column to read more about the school closure). Although the Oregon chapter of ACB led a valiant effort to save the school, the state's legislature, led by Representative Sara Gelser, made the decision to close the program. …

This Mattered to Me

Reading Comes Naturally: A Mother and Her Blind Child's Experiences, by Diane D. Miller, published in the January 1985 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 79, pp, 1-4, Nearly 25 years have passed since I first read Diane Miller's article entitled, Reading Comes Naturally: A Mother and Her Blind Child's Experiences in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB). At the time, I had been teaching for nine years and was in my third year working with beginning braille readers in a resource room setting. I had subscribed to JVIB when I was in graduate school and regularly read articles related to children. However, rarely had an article enticed me as much as this one. The personal narrative format was appealing, and, as a teacher of reading, I looked forward to learning from the author's experiences in the area of emergent literacy. In this article, Diane Miller describes her efforts to provide her preschool-aged daughter Jamaica, who was born blind, with the same early literacy experiences as her two sighted siblings. Ms. Miller brought to this challenge her background as a graphic designer, training as a teacher of visually impaired students (when Jamaica was three years old), and a commitment to the whole-language reading philosophy. This approach, which became widespread in the 1980s, advocated a focus on meaning before the introduction of isolated skills; teachers matched instructional activities to individual learners' interests, experiences, and skill levels, while using high-quality, authentic reading materials (Swenson, 1999). The author's first sentences made an impact on me with their message of equal expectations for children who are blind and sighted: I use the word reading in exactly the same sense as when a sighted child picks up a favorite book and thumbs through retelling the story in his or her own words. The child is obviously aware of the meaning and wholeness of that book. Embedded in this introduction are important emergent reading behaviors: independent choice of preferred books; development of book-handling skills, such as locating the front cover and turning pages; the ability to retell a story; the understanding that print or braille contains an important message; and, finally, the sense of pleasure books can bring when the content is motivating. The author notes that families and teachers should encourage children's early approximations of these reading behaviors, as they are important steps along the road to formal literacy. She continues her description of the literary environment she creates for Jamaica with many practical suggestions for assembling homemade books, recording auditory experience albums, and adapting commercial books for young children who are blind. Diane Miller's successful inclusion of Jamaica in her family's literacy activities is a testament to the power of family members as their children's first and most important teachers. …

This Mattered to Me

Impact of Curb Ramps on Safety of Persons Who Are Blind, by Billie Louise Bentzen and Janet M. Barlow, published in July-August 1995 issue of Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 89, Number 4, pp. 319-328. opportunity to contribute to This Matters to Me made me stop and reflect on--and appreciate--how publications such Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) have affected me and my professional life. The article I selected to highlight in this essay, Impact of Curb Ramps on Safety of Persons Who are Blind, by Billie Louise Bentzen and Janet Barlow, published results of research that was specifically designed to answer a controversial question. Why should that article still matter, years after question was answered and we, a field, have moved on? Because this article represents first time I remember reading orientation and mobility (O&M) research that questioned what we all know to be and because research in article helped settle a passionate argument. article matters even more because it was designed to do more than answer a specific question, it also provided valuable information that changed how I teach. Above all, it inspired me to consider importance of using research to answer questions. To convey significance of this article, a bit of background information is needed. In 1991, there was a heated debate among members of field of visual impairment and blindness about detectable warnings at curb ramps. One side argued that installing them was humiliating, because such ramps implied that blind people are not capable of detecting curbs when, in fact, as knows, blind people can be safe travelers long they have received proper O&M training. The other side argued that, as knows, even with best training, blind travelers have problems recognizing where edges of streets are when there are ramps. The debate was impassioned, with each side citing obvious. QUESTIONING ASSUMPTIONS WITH RESEARCH THAT USES REAL-LIFE SETTINGS While argument over curb ramps raged, and dignity and safety of blind people hung in balance, Beezy Bentzen and Janet Barlow began to design research to address this issue. The idea of using research to study what we all assumed to be true, to settle arguments with facts instead of anecdotes and advocacy, was a revelation to me. Whenever I thought of research, I imagined labs and controls, bells, buzzers, and stopwatches, but Dr. Bentzen and Ms. Barlow thought of real life--real people doing real things, with a minimum of manipulation from researchers. For example, because they were only interested in what happens when blind people walk along curb ramp, they considered having subjects guided toward street to be sure they walked along ramp. But they realized that this would remove some of real-life variables, because a lot of information and cues individuals use to find edge of street can be detected long before they reach curb ramp. The authors were wise to realize that subjects needed to be allowed to engage in whatever approach they would normally take they draw near to a street corner. Since this article was published, I have read other research that questions the truth, such Duane Gemschat and Shirin Hassan's groundbreaking study on whether drivers stop to allow people with white canes to cross roads everyone knows they do (Gemschat & Hassan, 2005). …

Past and Present Remembrances of Louis Braille

The braille code, created by Braille (1809-1852), represents access to information and education, currency of future for children and adults who are blind or visually impaired. Being able to manage and manipulate information is vital not only to economic success but also to a person's dignity and perceived self-worth as an educated individual. It is therefore important, regardless of whatever educational program is involved, that we ensure that individuals have choice learning and access to information now and future. In 2009, Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) will celebrate Braille's 200th birthday throughout year by publishing essays and excerpts relating to Braille and code he created. I have been honored by being invited to be series editor of JVIB Braille Bicentennial Celebration. Essay topics will include teaching braille public schools; issues of print versus braille and uncontracted versus contracted braille; braille competencies; consumers' and teachers' points of view on importance of braille; braille translation technology and its impact on literacy; and state of art concerning Unified English Braille Code. The October 2009 issue will be a Special Issue on Literacy, and that month's Braille Celebration column will include a brief summary of information on Braille that is not widely known. The last celebration of Braille and his life conducted by American Foundation for Blind (AFB) can be found March 1952 issue of one of JVIB's earlier incarnations, New Outlook for Blind. Instead of celebrating birthday of Braille, as we will do this year, that issue marked 100th anniversary of his death 1852 and included first authoritative biography of Braille English language. Entitled The Reading Fingers: Life of Braille, 1809-1852, it was a slightly abridged version of French biography written by Jean Roblin and was translated by Ruth G. Mandaline. (The full translation of The Reading Fingers was published by AFB 1955, and an electronic version of booklet appears online as part of AFB's celebration of Braille at: .) To further commemorate 100 years since Braille's death, AFB and its affiliate American Foundation of Overseas Blind (now known as Helen Keller International) issued a special seal bearing a likeness of his face and dates of his life. The seal was entitled: Louis Braille Centennial, 1809-1852, Light-Bearer to World of Darkness. (An image of this seal can be viewed online JVIB Time Line, available at: .) I will not go into detail on life of Braille here, since literature is already rich with accounts of his life, but I will simply highlight some interesting points that I hope reader will enjoy as much as I do. Please check back every month to continue celebration of this man's unique life and impact his code has had 200 years since his birth. ACCOUNTS OF BRAILLE'S BIRTH AND DEATH The description of Braille's birth and early life from Roblin biography provides a glimpse into life 19th century: The fourth of January, 1809, was a day of happiness for Braille family. The parents, however, were no longer very young; but Simon-Rene Braille [a harness maker, aged 44] said proudly that new baby to be born would be the companion of his old age. ... Suffering labor pains, Monique [Baron Braille, aged 39] had been impatiently awaiting birth.... At four o'clock morning, a small, puny creature, with flabby, wrinkled skin was born, and for some time, it was thought he would not live. (Roblin, 1952, p. 65) But live he did, youngest of four siblings. As a boy of 3 years, went to his father' s forbidden workbench and, in hands, still too chubby to be skillful, took hold of a knife and a piece of leather to cut. …