Overview

The visual impairment (VI) category is not a very prevalent type of disability found among school-aged children. 

Strengths

Students with visual impairment have as many strengths as their neurotypical peers. They can perform in school with the same rigor as their peers. This type of disability in no way affects cognitive ability, as students with visual impairment may also have an increased sense of hearing, touch, smell, and taste. They are resilient and adaptable when it comes to learning and accessing materials and may learn how to process information orally or auditorily.

Needs

The needs that most students with visual impairment have tend to be centered on their lack of sight. Things that students with visual impairment may struggle with include reading, making eye contact, or being able to read non-verbal social cues. Their self-esteem may also be impacted due to their appearance as someone with visual impairment who relies on visual aids. Another thing that students with visual impairment may struggle with is their balance and movement.

Supporting Students with Visual Impairment

Common Teaching Strategies

According to Paths to Literacy, here are some ways to help promote learning among students with visual impairment:

• Provide a variety of hands-on, meaningful experiences.  Children learn best through real-world experiences in which they can have a direct, first-hand understanding of something and not just a verbal explanation.
• Talk about these experiences with the child beforehand, as well as while the experience is happening, and afterwards when you get home or with other people.  Use words to label objects, people, and experiences that are appropriate to the child’s developmental level.
• Offer many opportunities for the child to explore and interact with a wide range of materials and real objects.  This helps to compare size, shape, texture and other attributes, while also helping the child to develop basic concepts and an understanding of same and different.
• Encourage daily purposeful, fun movement activities to build gross motor and fine motor abilities. These are necessary precursors for many life skills, including the tactile discrimination needed for functional use of object and tactile symbols or braille.
• Support the child to interact with others in safe and comfortable environments.  Playful experiences and exposure to others with reciprocal give and take helps to build the foundation for communication and social development.
• Create a literacy-rich environment, in which the child is aware that others are reading and writing.
• Provide accessible labels in the environment on the child’s chair, table, cubby and any location where print labels are found.  These should be in the child’s preferred format (large print, braille, objects, tactile symbols).  At home, label rooms in the house, light switches, controls on appliances, and other places where print is found.
• Read aloud using stories and books that are interesting and appropriate for the child. Use real objects and personal experiences to increase understanding.  Link to story boxes
• Determine what medium is best for an individual child through the Learning Media Assessment (LMA).  This may be braille, print, dual media, auditory strategies, objects, symbols, or some combination.
• Provide books and literacy tools in a format that is accessible to the child. (Strategies for Teaching Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired)

Visual Impairment

References

National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Students With Disabilities. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.

U.S. Department of Education. (2018). Sec. 300.8 Child with a disability. Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.8