Visual Impairment Newsletter: School Communication for VI Students and Families

Students with visual impairments receive services from a teacher of the visually impaired and often an orientation and mobility specialist, sometimes in addition to a general education classroom placement, sometimes in a specialized school or program. In any of these settings, family communication is critical because many of the skills being developed, orientation, independent living, self-advocacy, are practiced most effectively across settings and require family understanding to generalize.

The Expanded Core Curriculum

Most families of students with visual impairments know that their child receives braille instruction or large print accommodation. Fewer know about the expanded core curriculum, the nine additional areas of learning that students with visual impairments need that sighted students develop through incidental observation. Your newsletter should introduce this concept and describe which areas are currently being addressed.

Literacy: Braille, Large Print, and Technology

Describe the literacy approach being used with your student. If braille: what phase of braille instruction and what the student can currently read independently. If large print: what magnification level, what lighting accommodations, and whether digital formats are supplementing print. If a screen reader or text-to-speech: what software is being used and how the student is developing efficient use.

Families who understand their child's literacy tool and what it can and cannot do are better advocates when the tool is not working or when accommodations need to be updated.

Orientation and Mobility

O and M is one of the most important services for students with visual impairments and one of the least understood by families. Describe what O and M instruction covers: cane travel, using sighted guide techniques, navigating familiar and unfamiliar environments, public transportation, and the protective techniques that allow independent, safe mobility.

Tell families how they can support O and M at home: by encouraging the student to navigate familiar spaces independently rather than guiding them by the hand, and by communicating about any changes in the home environment that affect the student's navigation.

Building Independence at Home

The most impactful thing families can do at home is resist the urge to do things for the student that the student can learn to do independently. This is emotionally harder than it sounds. Giving a visually impaired child time to pour their own drink, find their own backpack, or navigate a familiar room independently builds the capability that will matter most in adulthood. Daystage makes it easy to send this kind of specific, practical newsletter on a consistent schedule.