The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that all students with disabilities receive specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet their unique needs. For students with visual impairments or who are deafblind, the teacher of students with visual Impairments (TVI/TSVI), teacher of students who are deafblind (TDB/TSDB), and orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists are crucial to this process. These itinerant VI professionals support students who are visually impaired or who are deafblind in achieving their academic goals and meeting the requirements of their Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), including the expanded core curriculum (ECC). They also provide guidance and support to other professionals working with these students.
The Workload Analysis Subcommittee of the Texas Action Committee for the Education of Students with Visual Impairments endeavored to create a tool to assist VI professionals in quantifying their workloads so that they could better communicate the allocation of their time. The VISSPA was developed to demonstrate the breakdown of time required to effectively fulfill all components of the roles and responsibilities of VI professionals.