VI Resources For Parents and Families
What is Visual Impairment (VI)?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) officially defines the category as “an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.”
Accessibility options to help with viewing/reading
Tools for learning about braille/literacy
- Braille Bug
- Paths to Literacy
- Hadley Institute for Blind and Visually Impaired
- Perkins School for the Blind
- Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI)
Expanded Core
“In addition to all the core curricular areas included in the general educational curriculum, students with a visual impairment need to be assessed and receive instruction in very specific skills that have been demonstrated to be potential problem areas for persons with a visual disability.”
– Wisconsin National Agenda
The Nine Specific Skill Areas listed below comprise the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC):
- Assistive Technology
- Career & Vocational Education/Transition
- Compensatory Skills
- Independent Living Skills & Personal Management
- Orientation and Mobility Skills
- Recreation and Leisure Skills
- Self Determination
- Social Skills
- Sensory Efficiency Skills
Unique opportunities/events
- Northwest Association for Blind Athletes Paralympics Event (Fall)
- HDESD Orientation and Mobility Event (Fall)
- Skiing with Oregon Adaptive Sports (Jan-March)
- HDESD Goal Ball Practice/State Tournament (Feb/March)
- BVIS Track Meet (Spring)
- Adventure Camp
VI Links
Local Organizations
- Oregon Commission for the Blind
- Oregon Blind and Visually Impaired Student Fund
- National Federation of the Blind of Oregon
- Oregon Adaptive Sports (OAS)
- Northwest Association for Blind Athletes (NWABA)
National Organizations
- American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
- AFB Career Connect
- AFB Teen Connect
- AFB Parent Connect
- National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
- National Association of Parents with Visual Impairments (NAPVI)
- American Council for the Blind (ACB)
- National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH)
- American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
- Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI) American Printing House
- Strategy to See
- Little Bear Sees – a website by a parent of a child with CVI