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Overview of the National Agenda for the Education of Children and Youths with Visual Impairments, including those with Multiple Disabilities

What is the National Agenda?

In 1994, Dr. Judith E. Heumann issued Policy Guidance on Educating Blind and Visually Impaired Students. In that document, Dr. Heumann stated:

[I]t has come to our attention that services for some blind and visually impaired students are not appropriately addressing their unique educational and learning needs, particularly their needs for instruction in literacy, self-help skills, and orientation and mobility. We at OSERS are strongly committed to ensuring that our educational system takes the steps that are necessary to enable students who are blind or visually impaired to become productive and contributing citizens. Therefore, OSERS has determined that there is a need for additional guidance on the FAPE requirements of Part B as they relate to blind and visually impaired students.

The National Agenda for the Education of Children and Youth with Visual Impairments, Including those with Multiple Disabilities (National Agenda) was developed in response to concerns about the education of visually impaired children. This grassroots effort is a way to coordinate efforts and inform others of the disability-specific needs of children with visual and multiple impairments. Priority areas were developed, field analysis was conducted, and eight goal statements were adopted. Since that time, hundreds of universities, educational, professional, and consumer organizations, business, and agencies have endorsed these goals.

What are the Goal Statements?

Goal 1: Referral

Students and their families will be referred to an appropriate education program within 30 days of identification of a suspected visual impairment.

When a child is diagnosed with a visual impairment and the family has no one to answer their many questions and concerns, an opportunity is lost to inform, educate, and encourage the family. The achievement of Goal 1 will start families and their children on the road to early intervention so that every opportunity for the child to learn will be made available as quickly as possible after diagnosis.

Goal 2: Parent Participation

Policies and procedures will be implemented to ensure the right of all parents to full participation and equal partnership in the education process.

Families, teachers of children with visual impairments, orientation and mobility specialists, general education teachers, and others must work as a team for any child's individual education plan to be implemented successfully. The learning needs of each child with a visual impairment must be identified and communicated to all team members to ensure success. This can be more complicated when the child has additional disabilities and more professionals are involved in the process.

Together families and professionals prepare the child to function at his/her highest level. With this collaborative support, children who are visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities, develop independence and self-esteem. They become active team members themselves by working with their families and teachers.

Goal 3: Personnel Preparation

Universities, with a minimum of one full-time faculty member in the area of visual impairment, will prepare a sufficient number of educators of students with visual impairments to meet personnel needs throughout the country.

A chronic and serious shortage of teachers and orientation and mobility specialists for students with visual impairments exists throughout the nation. There is an urgent need to prepare local teachers to serve local needs. Districts continue to have difficulties recruiting potential teachers and orientation & mobility specialists. Without the specialists needed to address their disability specific needs, students with visual impairments will have difficulties achieving their maximum independence.

Goal 4: Provision of Educational Services

Service providers will determine caseloads based on the needs of students and will require ongoing professional development for all teachers and orientation and mobility specialists.

VI professionals serve as consulting, itinerant, resource room, or classroom instructors. Many factors need to be considered in determining the amount of time a student needs from a VI professional, especially the amount of time needed to provide effective instruction in the core curriculum (See Goal 8). Other factors include geographic distribution of the students, severity of students' visual impairments, age of onset of visual impairment, presence of additional disabilities, and availability of certified teachers/O&M specialists.

Goal 5: Array of Services

Local education programs will ensure that all students have access to a full array of placement options.

Children with visual impairments are often placed in settings that better accommodate the availability of teachers of students with visual impairments, and/or orientation and mobility specialists, than the needs of the students Due to the critical shortage of these professionals and the vast geographic distribution of children, a full array of service options is seldom available. A full array of options will range from consultation to services in a residential setting.

Goal 6: Assessment

Assessment of students will be conducted, in collaboration with parents, by personnel having expertise in the education of students with visual impairments.

An educator of students with visual impairments and the child's parents must be co-captains of the assessment team. Parents can provide important information about their child and their priorities for their child. Personnel who administer assessments must understand necessary adaptations of the testing instrument for a child who is visually impaired. If not, the test will not be valid and will not result in accurate information about the child. Standardized instruments that address the learning methods of children with visual impairments are often required. Instruments with standardized terminology addressing every area of the core curriculum are also necessary.

Goal 7: Access to Instructional Materials

Access to developmental and educational services will include an assurance that instructional materials are available to students in the appropriate media and at the same time as their sighted peers.

In the course of academic development and the programmed progression of subject matter, blind and visually impaired students are placed in a disadvantageous position when materials are not available for them. The idea that these students will be able to "catch up" once materials are received is misguided, unfair, and largely impossible.

Goal 8: Core Curriculum

Educational and developmental goals, including instruction, will reflect the assessed needs of each student in all areas of academic and disability-specific core curricula.

Educators define the core curriculum as the knowledge and skills expected to be learned by students for high school graduation. Generally the core curriculum consists of academic knowledge and skills. Core curriculum for blind and visually impaired students consists of areas of study beyond those that are traditional for other students, such as

Goal 9 - Transition

Transition services will address developmental and educational needs (birth through high school) to assist students and their families, in setting goals and implementing strategies through the life continuum commensurate with the student's aptitudes, interests, and abilities.

Goal 10 - Professional Development

To improve student learning, service providers will engage in on-going local, state, and national professional development.

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This page last modified 30 Jul 2002
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