Given one hour with my mentor, I would hope he/she could speak as fast as I can because my questions would be rapid fire. I have been out of the field for over twenty years and in that time, life has changed technologically, socially, and culturally at the speed of light. I would want to know how adaptive technology has evolved for those with visual impairments and blindness. With the rise of social media and its impact on society, I would want to know how TVI are preparing students to navigate and utilize the world wide web to their best advantage. Are students with visual impairments/blindness as savvy and addicted to smartphones as their sighted counterparts? What smartphone adaptations are available to students with VI? With the rise of English Speakers of other languages, how is our field adapting to teaching those with VI/ blindness who are not only adapting to a new country, language, and culture, but also trying to obtain those skills while obtaining skills to function without sight? Are we being effective in reaching across the cultural divides that hinder students with VI? How has the Braille code changed and are we still using manual Braille machines? Asking that question is a bit frightening because it really shows how long I have been out of the VI world. Still, I realize that I have to be honest about where I am in order to know what I am missing. Although I have been away from the field of teaching those with VI/ blindness, I have raised four children and tutored students during that time. I am keenly aware of how the world they operate in is vastly different than the one I was originally trained to teach in. There is so much to learn in order to be an effective TVI. At this point, my mentor may be exhausted from trying to answer that many questions in an hour!
One myth that I came across regarding VI and blindness on a fairly regular basis was that VI students have supersonic hearing. I worked in a school for students with multiple exceptionalities and had one particular student that could always detect when I was around. The classroom teacher would ask me not to speak when I would go to retrieve another one of her classmates for VI services. Any time I entered the room, M, would just know it was me and want to come with me even if it wasn't her time for instruction. M could even hear me down the hall and attempt to leave the classroom to follow my voice. It appeared as though M had supersonic hearing, but what was really happening was M really looked forward to the VI instruction time with me because she was often bored or irritated with the stimuli in the classroom. On top of dealing with having a visual impairment, M also was diagnosed as having autism and was considered to be trainable in mental ability. Often my time with her was calming due to the fact that her classroom could feel over-stimulating to her. Therefore she was truly waiting for any signal that I was near. I felt like the Pied Piper because I would be walking down the hall with one student only to discover I had another one keenly following me! M was a student that had remarkable auditory localization skills, but not supersonic hearing. Her ability was driven more by wanting to go to a learning environment that was less overstimulating than her busy classroom was.
This first week of class has been filled both with new experiences, (learning to use online classroom and blogging), and wonderful old memories flooding back,(remembering my experiences as a TVI). I'm looking forward to learning about all the ways our field has advanced and improved for students with VI. Reacquainting myself with the skills I used as a TVI while learning about these changes is going to enrich my abilities in working with students in innumerable ways.
