Media Minute – Friendship

“I like seeing other people who are blind or visually impaired. When it gets closer to the TSBVI camps, it gets more and more exciting. I like going to restaurants. It’s really fun and you get to go on a lot of field trips!” shared Helena, a student who attends Short-Term, Summer Programs, and Outreach events. Friendship is a common theme that runs through all Media Minute posts. Whether it’s meeting a peer at an Outreach “Low Vision on the Road” event who has the same eye condition, running the annual Turkey Trot Duo Dash with friends from Girls’ School of Austin, splashing with dormmates in the water table during Residential Hobby Hour, or being a part of the school play, students served in all TSBVI programs have ample opportunities to create meaningful friendships. This Media Minute will feature media that highlights TSBVI students engaging in social interaction with friends across departments, activities, and environments.

In the “Day to Day of a TSBVI Student” Sense of Texas podcast from May 2024, former Student Council President and High School student Jazmin shared, “I love getting to be able to act and sing and do sports and just pretty much everything at our school!” That podcast episode was recorded and edited by the students in the Audio/Video Production class. Students in Comprehensive Programs have the opportunity to work together on projects during the day and to join various clubs and groups with their peers during residential hours. TSBVI offers many team sports, such as goalball, track, wrestling, cheer, dragon boat racing, and swimming. Students can also join music groups like Classical Guitar, The Semi-Modulars, and Dot 6 EXIT band, as well as engage in weekly musical activities with peers. Residential students join “Venture Crew,” where they do joint gardening projects and create donations for the Austin Humane Society.

Social interaction is an important area of the Expanded Core Curriculum, which are concepts and skills that often require specialized instruction for students to compensate for decreased opportunities to learn incidentally by observing others. As almost all social skills are learned by visually observing other people, students at TSBVI engage in structured activities to practice peer interactions. Residential Director Matt Schultz wrote a series of articles (2018 and 2019) in TSBVI’s magazine, TX SenseAbilities, about the importance of programming that builds relationships. Students learn social skills through routines that incorporate scripts in their preferred literacy, through turn-taking, and with topics that motivate them. Social skills are taught and friendships formed in activities like yoga, Hobby Hour, building a model of an eye, Braille Challenge competitions, Farmer’s Market, and participating in “Start with Hello,” a week of programming on teaching empathy and social interaction.

In this short video, two friends participate in recipe reading on the dorm with the support of their residential staff prior to making a snack together.

TSBVI students also engage in advocacy and community service events with their peers throughout the school year. We host White Cane Day every October and students participate in marches and give speeches to the gathered crowd. The LEO Club engages in service projects throughout the year. High School students lead “Blind Awareness Day” with local Austin McCallum High School Peer Assistance Leadership and Service peers (PALS). Two participating McCallum students wrote an artcle about their experience for the McCallum online news magazine. Fourth grade students from Girls’ School of Austin join weekly P.E. classes with TSBVI students where they engage in fitness together, and create lasting friendships throughout the school year. The TSBVI fine arts department collaborates in a yearly community art show with Almost Real Things Art Gallery. Students work with local artists on making tactile art and fostering inclusion of individuals who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision in the arts.

As TSBVI gears up for Summer Programs 2025, please enjoy this video of Koleby and Julio jumping together on the trampoline from Summer 2023. In the video, Koleby asks Julio, “What’s Koleby’s favorite color?” and Julio accurately responds with “Red!” This was one of Koleby’s ways of interacting and checking with all who were present. It demonstrates a familiarity and connection between two friends!