Education

Much of our ability to understand and relate to others depends on seeing and interpreting facial expressions and body language. When a child cannot access this information, it becomes more difficult to bond with family members as infants, make friends with peers, and behave in appropriate ways in social situations.

Many of us find much joy in leisure time, from participating in sports to pursuing hobbies.  For a child with impaired vision, these activities might seem out of reach. With appropriate safety precautions, however, children can participate in much more than we might realize.  Imagine a game of "beep baseball", for instance, where the ball and the bases make sounds so that players can practice and participate using their hearing rather than sight.    

For children and youth with a visual impairment, finding the right balance of asking for help, asserting their needs and wishes, and forging their own destiny is a critical skill for them to develop - and for the adults who support them.  The goal is the development of unafraid young adults with the confidence to ask for assistance when needed, the curiosity to explore the world, and the determination to find their own path.

What does a child like to do, and how can they leverage their interests and strengths into a career as they get older?  The array of careers available to adults who are blind or visually impaired is much larger than we might think, especially if they develop the basic behaviors that build success in the workplace.  How can we give children with a visual impairment the gift of opportunity, and connections with adult mentors who are visually impaired themselves?

Choosing a matched set of clothing in the morning.  Making a meal when you can't see labels, or read stove or oven controls.  Grocery shopping when you can't see items on the shelf.  Buying anything when all paper money feels the same.  These are just a few of the challenges that students with a visual impairment will need to master to live independently as adults.

Understanding where they are and how to get somewhere else are critical skills for children and youth with a visual impairment.  Safety on stairs, in parking lots, crossing streets and avoiding obstacles are basic skills that require training in the use of a cane, a guide dog, a human guide, and/or technology.

Without effective vision, the development of conceptual understanding of a topic in school can be more difficult for a student.  Conversion to larger print, digital media, auditory formats, or braille - and instruction on how to best understand and use these formats - is essential to ensuring that students with a visual impairment receive the same classroom content at the same time as their sighted peers. The development of literacy for a child with a visual impairment is as important as the development of literacy for any child.   

Children typically learn so much about the world around them through vision.  When vision is impaired, children need to make the best use of their other senses, including their remaining vision, hearing, sense of touch, and even smell.  Imagine different scents being added to paints, for instance, so that a young child can distinguish colors even without seeing them!

Much of the technology on our phones and computers was initially developed as an accessibility feature for people with disabilities.  The combination of mainstream technology in phones, tablets and apps - with additional specialized equipment and software as needed - can introduce children with a visual impairment to learning in and out of the classroom at the same time as their peers.