Open Letter to COSB Members

by Stuart Wittenstein, Superintendent, California School for the Blind

As the current president of the Division on Visual Impairments (DVI) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage all COSB members and their staffs to consider becoming involved in this organization. Several Leaders in COSB have also held leadership roles in DVI, including COSB President Phil Hatlen and COSB Past Presidents Herb Miller, Lou Tutt, and Dennis Thurman. In fact, Lou is currently DVI's Governor and Dennis is on DVI's board.

Why DVI? Well, at the end of this I've reprinted an article from the Fall 1998 DVI Quarterly with some of the personal reasons that blindness professionals belong to DVI. But I want to add one important factor. From a strictly policy and advocacy point of view, CEC is the most influential group of special educators on Capitol Hill. It is my opinion that the issues that concern us regarding providing quality services to children who are blind or deafblind must be heard by CEC and by the policy makers whom CEC influences.

Some of you may not belong to CEC because you don't believe that CEC reflects your views on these issues. Right now, that's the most important reason to join DVI - to assure that this influential membership organization hears from those of us who believe that specialized, disability specific education is the key to the future for the kids we serve. Let's use the important policy vehicle of CEC to the benefit of blind and deafblind children and their families. Let's shake things up a little!

Volume 6, No. 2, April 2000 Contents

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