Los Angeles Unified School District Division of Special Education

1. Los Angeles Unified School District Division of Special Education Schools for All Children VISUALLY IMPAIRED PROGRAM Donnalyn Jaque-Antón Associate Superintendent

2. Visual Impairments

3. Contents • Eligibility • Types of Visual Impairments • Unique Educational Needs of Visually Impaired Students • Orientation and Mobility

4. VISUALLY IMPAIRED PROGRAM Shirley Kirk , Coordinator Los Angeles Unified School District Visually Impaired Program 323-464-5052 skirk@lausd.k12.ca.us

5. Eligibility for Special Education The Visually Impaired Program serves students who have a visual impairment which, even with correction, adversely affects a student’s educational performance.

6. Visual Impairment Determined from a current report from ophthalmologist or optometrist indicating: • Eye medical diagnosis which includes: • Limited visual acuity after correction • Visual field loss • Total blindness

7. Partially Sighted • The acuity, AFTER THE BEST POSSIBLE CORRECTION is 20/70 to 20/200

8. Legally Blind • The acuity, AFTER THE BEST POSSIBLE CORRECTION is 20/200 or worse.

9. Visual Field Loss • A visual field of 20 degrees or smaller is also considered to be legal blindness

10. Visual Impairment or Visual Processing • A visual impairment does not include visual perceptual or visual motor dysfunction resulting solely from a learning disability • These students do not meet eligibility as visually impaired or low incidence disability

11. A vision loss can occur at anytime in a student’s life

12. Congenital visual impairments occur at birth from causes such as: • Premature birth – Retinopathy of Prematurity • Infections such as rubella, and toxoplasmosis – Cataracts, Myopia • Genetic/Hereditary – Retinal Blastoma, Optic Albinism, Aniridia • Unknown causes – Optic nerve hypoplasia

13. Adventitious visual impairments occur after birth from causes such as • Accidents such as gunshot wounds, auto accidents, head injury – total blindness, specific damage to occipital lobe • Tumors/cancers – total blindness to fluctuating visual impairment due to removal of parts of occipital lobe • Illness/ allergic reactions to medications – total blindness due to extreme light sensitivity, glaucoma, cataracts

14. Common visual impairments Cataracts Opacity of the lens resulting in decreased acuity, blurred vision, photophobia, squint, nystagmus. The world looks like this:

15. Detached Retina Parts of the retina pull away from the ocular structure resulting in blind spots, field loss, central loss, blurred vision. The world can look like this:

16. Retinitis Pigmentosa Hereditary disorder causes degeneration of light sensitive cells in the retina resulting in night blindness, tunnel vision, total blindness. The world can look like this:

17. Diabetic Retinopathy Diabetes can cause changes in blood vessels of retina resulting in double vision, fluctuating acuity, detached retina. The world can look like this:

18. Ocular Albinism: Lack of pigment causes abnormal optic nerve development resulting in decreased acuity, photophobia, nystagmus. The world can look like this:

19. I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.

20. Students with visual impairments have unique educational needs.

21. The Expanded Core Curriculum for Visually Impaired Students • Concept Development and Academic Needs • Communication • Social/Emotional • Sensory/Motor • Orientation and Mobility • Career/Vocational Needs

22. Concept Development • Understanding concepts such as laterality, time, position in space, size, shapes, sequence, quantity, actions, emotions, classification of object • Sense of their own body image

23. Specialized Academic Needs • Developing listening skills – auditory reception, comprehension, analysis • Knowing how to use specialized reference materials in primary reading medium • Interpretation of maps, graphs, charts, etc. • Develop note taking skills • Ability to select and use a reader effectively

24. Specialized Communication Skills • Mastery of specialized reading modes • Mastery of specialized writing modes • Able to write own signature legibly • Operate basic communication equipment • Proficiency in using specialized devices for reading and writing • Proficiency in using specialized devices for mathematics

25. Unique Social/Emotional Needs • Ability to discriminate between behaviors that are socially unacceptable in public, yet acceptable in private. • Displaying acceptable social behavior in variety of group situations. • Ability to control body posture, movement and physical mannerisms in acceptable manner. • Awareness of appropriate social distance for various communication situations.

26. Ability to recognize teasing and develop appropriate ways to handle it • Awareness of peer pressure and appropriate degree of conformity • Ability to identify and share feelings about own visual impairment in relation to being accepted by peers • Understanding of long range results of too much dependence on others • Being comfortable asking for help when appropriate

27. Sensory/Motor Needs • Learn to identify, discriminate and use various textures and objects tactually and underfoot. • Learn to identify, discriminate, track and use continuous and intermittent auditory sources and indoors and outdoors. • Learn to identify, discriminate and use various kinesthetic and proprioceptive sources indoors and outdoors such as changes in temperature, movement of air currents or height and depth changes

28. Daily Living Skills • Perform basic personal hygiene tasks • Perform dressing skills • Prepare foods • Choose and care for own clothing • Acceptable and competent eating skills • Manages money • Skills in using telecommunications • Understanding time and schedules

29. Career/Vocational Needs • Knowing and using personal information skills including legal signature • Knowing how to make contact with the Department of Rehabilitation • Ability to train and use readers • Knowledge of sources for transcription of materials, and for access equipment • Ability to serve as own advocate in obtaining services needed for job success

30. Orientation and Mobility

31. Orientation: Knowing where you are, what is around you, where you want to go, and what steps you must take to reach your destination.

32. Mobility: Purposeful, independent movement that gets you where you want to go safely and efficiently

33. Orientation and Mobility Needs Include: Developing a conceptual understanding of: • Body image • Concrete environment • Spatial concepts • Compass directions and map reading • Traffic and traffic patterns

34. Learning to become oriented and travel independently at home and at various school settings • Learning to use appropriate sighted guide skills • Learning protective, trailing and long cane • skills • Learning to use remaining vision, and distance low vision aids • Learning to use public transportation

35. The best and most beautiful things In the world Cannot be seen Or even touched. They must be felt in the heart. Helen Keller

36. Resources Braille Institute www.brailleinstitute.org California Optometric Association http://coavision.org California Transcribers and Educators of the Visually Handicapped www.ctevh.org American Foundation for the Blind www.afb.org

37. List serve for questions and information: braille-n-teach@mlist.cde.ca.gov Los Angeles Unified School District Division of Special Education website: http://dse-web.lausd.k12.ca.us