Providing Services to Students who are Deafblind: Coming together as a field

For our family, like many others, the first few weeks of remote learning were overwhelmingly hard. I was worried initially that my son, Dalton, a sixth-grader who has Usher syndrome and as a result is deafblind, would not be able to receive his IEP services and that he’d be unable to access his curriculum from home. I was also worried about how I was going to support him at home, while working and juggling the multiple priorities of a family of six. I didn’t want Dalton to regress academically or socially.

Students who are deafblind are a heterogeneous population. The effects and experience of deafblindness vary for each person. Dual sensory vision and hearing loss can create unique challenges when it comes to education. According to the National Center on Deaf-Blindness census, 14.2 percent of deafblind school-age students are taught in inclusive classrooms at least 80 percent of the day, and over 60 percent are educated in inclusive settings at least some of the day. (NCES, 2018). Social-emotional support and continuity of services is important for students who are deafblind because dual sensory loss can create feelings of isolation—feelings that can be even more prevalent during these uncertain times. This means that during this pandemic, it’s imperative that students continue to be able to access the curriculum and receive their needed services and supports, and that within this context of continuing support, IEP teams consider both academic progress and the social-emotional health of students.

Strategies for Accessing Curriculum, Supports, and Services at a Distance

But how is it possible to continue to serve these students when meeting in person is not possible? Flexibility and collaboration, both with families and with other educators, is vital. Professionals in the fields of visual impairments and deaf/hard of hearing are finding creative ways to support each other during this time. Professionals are also finding an even stronger need to partner with families. Bottom line? While it’s true that not every service is possible right now, there are many things that can be done.

As a parent, I see this time as an opportunity to slow down and to prioritize other areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) that have not previously been a focus for our family. The ECC defines a set of concepts and skills that require specialized instruction to support students who are blind or visually impaired in order to compensate for decreased opportunities to learn as a result of perceptual differences. The ECC includes skills like assistive technology, compensatory skills, orientation and mobility, self-determination, and social interaction.

In March, American Printing House for the Blind, California State University–LA, and Paths to Literacy (a joint project of Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Perkins School for the Blind), collaborated and began offering free virtual lessons on topics related to the ECC, for students with various abilities. The Virtual Expanded Core Education Learning (Virtual ExCEL) program has been very popular with educators and families, modeling ways services can be provided virtually.

Orientation and mobility (O&M) services are among the most difficult types of services to provide virtually, because things like white cane training are hard to do at a distance. But that doesn’t mean learning has to stop. Tracy Spohn, an O&M specialist, has found a fun way to make O&M services virtual by creating and sharing weekly podcasts openly to the field. The homeBOUND FOR ADVENTURE podcasts focus on topics such as community, maps and measurements, and landmarks and cues. Similarly, Dr. Rebecca Sheffield just began a podcast series, It’s My Job, where she facilitates an interview between a student who has a visual impairment and a professional who is visually impaired. These interviews are driven by career-related questions that are pertinent to the student. The goal of these podcasts is to find an interesting, engaging way to provide students information related to the career-awareness segment of the ECC. Parentmobility.com even has developed video trainings aimed at helping parents understand a variety of O&M topics.

As the school year comes to a close, we’re seeing some exciting and fun virtual summer opportunities for students who are blind or visually impaired. This comes at a great time since many in-person summer camps and opportunities have been canceled. The Inaugural Virtual ExCEL camp is being offered for free. Leader Dogs for the Blind is also offering a virtual summer experience aimed at helping teens build their independence.