An interview with Rosanne K. Silberman, Ed.D., & Sharon Z. Sacks, Ph.D.

Q: How should teachers physically arrange their classrooms when teaching a student with a visual impairment and other disabilities?

A: Teachers need to physically organize and structure their classrooms to accommodate the unique visual, auditory, tactile, and physical needs of a student with a visual impairment and other disabilities. Visual considerations include seating the student in a specified place where he/she will not be facing a window in order to avoid glare. This also implies that the teacher should never be facing the class with his/her back to the window.

Teachers need to reduce classroom distractions by providing an uncluttered learning space, thereby avoiding visual clutter, e.g. placing too many visual materials in front of/near a student with low vision and an additional disability. The student becomes over-stimulated and frustrated.

Auditory considerations require regulation of noise level. Seat students away from noisy areas or busy traffic patterns. Background noises can be extremely distracting and prevent the student with a visual impairment and other disability from actively participating appropriately in an activity.

Tactile considerations include organizing the classroom that enables the student who is blind and multiply impaired to have numerous opportunities throughout the day to have hand-on experiences with materials. Along with print, braille and tactile symbols should be used to label areas of the room such as cabinets, coat hooks, students’ desks, and learning centers/stations.

Physical considerations include structuring the furniture arrangement in the classroom so that there is sufficient room for the student with a visual impairment and additional disability to move around the room freely and safely. If a student is in a wheelchair, then wider space has to be made available for freedom of movement for various activities. Teachers should keep the organization of the classroom the same so that students will learn to orient to the various parts of the room. If a change is made, the teacher must inform the student. This is critically important for these types of students who find it difficult to learn new routines and generalize.

Q: What supports do students with visual impairments and other disabilities need in the classroom?

A: Students with visual impairments and other disabilities need a variety of supports throughout their schooling. All supports should be accessible within the context of the classroom and the classroom teacher should be the key person responsible for the educational program.

Some professional specialized supports unique to this population include a certified teacher of the visually impaired, an orientation and mobility instructor, and an assistive technologist specialist. These individuals should provide instruction within natural occurring activities in the classroom in such areas as activities of daily living, career development, communication skills (Braille), and enhancement in the use of functional vision.

Other supports used in the classroom, depending on the unique needs of the student, might be an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, a speech pathologist or communication skills specialist. They might provide instruction in fine and gross motor skills and communication (e.g. augmentative communication system) that are aligned with a general education content area performance standard.

It is important to note, that regardless of the type of support provided, students with visual impairments and other disabilities need opportunities to become as independent as possible. Too much support provided by a paraeducator or related services personnel will prevent a student from acquiring knowledge along with his/her peers and it will hinder socialization and interaction with peers.

Peer tutors from higher general education grades and classmates without disabilities also can be supports to the student with a visual impairment and other disabilities in the general education classroom. All of the professional and paraprofessional supports need to collaborate, share information about the student, and work effectively as a team to ensure that IEP goals and objectives are implemented and accomplished within the general education environment.

Q: How should cooperative and interactive learning activities be structured so that students with visual impairments and other disabilities can benefit?

A: Cooperative learning and interactive activities need to be carefully structured by the classroom teacher so that students with visual impairments and other disabilities have sufficient opportunities for hands-on experiences and active exploration using as many senses as possible.

The teacher needs to demonstrate a positive attitude that all students are participating members of the cooperative learning group and model how the student with the visual impairment and other disabilities can participate with appropriate adaptations, e.g. object or picture cues, augmentative communicative device, pointing, yes/no responses. The teacher needs to model how to show materials to a student who is blind (put the student’s hands on the items) and to verbally describe location of materials without giving visual clues. The teacher, when assigning groups, for example, during study of thematic units, should place the student with the visual impairment and other disabilities with those students whom he/she has selected, or with those students who have showed friendship toward the student with the disability, or have assisted the student in different school activities such as playing in the gym or playground or eating in the cafeteria.

The student with the visual impairment should be given the opportunity to experience different roles within the cooperative group, e.g. recorder, checker, leader, runner. Participating in interactive learning activities also will enable the student with the visual impairment to enhance his/her social skills of requesting, sharing materials, and turn taking.