Students that are enrolled in the Program for the Visually Impaired often require specialized equipment and tools that are unlike any others utilized in other exceptional education programs. Vision is a distance sense and one that is greatly missed by students with VI. Unlike the popular myths that claim students with VI develop supernatural adaptability from their remaining senses, the reality is that students with VI require guidance in developing skills to help them cope with the loss of incidental observation learning. Although plenty of technological advances have made some mainstream devices capable of providing for some educational needs of students with VI, they cannot fill the gap entirely.
School administrators need to understand that the educational needs of students with VI are not met by just tactile and auditory adaptations. VI students require repeated exposure to direct experiences, as well as extensive, deeply detailed explanations for those experiences. Those are not provided by the usual auditory books available to the general public. Materials that are adapted into tactile and auditory formats are not even close to being equivalent to materials that are presented visually. This makes the impact of VI on the educational experience of students in the VI program more extensive and thus more in need of specialized instruction and equipment unique to VI alone.
Yes, this creates a funding headache for school administrators, however, the needs of VI students are dictated by both state and federal laws and cannot be ignored with the excuse of lack of funding. TVIs must be well-read in translating the impact of IDEA upon what the district must provide for their students with VI. Each state has variations on the federal law and TVIs must know them and help administrators understand why the data that they collect regarding each VI student helps support what specialized equipment and tools are necessary for each student. Every student with VI has unique educational needs that must be met in order to be in compliance with both state and federal laws.
A particularly helpful resource that TVIs should share with administrators is the Administrator's Toolbox, available online through the Texas School for the Blind. Not only does the site provide a variety of materials to TVIs, but it also gives descriptions of services needed and definitions to help administrators advocate for their district funding needs for VI students. The TVI may author the grant writing initiative for the district, however administrator's will need to give an informed statement of approval for the funding grants to be approved. TVIs may also wish to share other published resources with their administrators to help guide them through this process, such as : " Seeing Eye to Eye: An Administrator's Guide to Students", ( Lewis, Allman, & D'Andrea, 2000), and " When You Have A Visually Impaired Student in Your Classroom", ( 2002). Both publications give detailed explainations of Expanded Core Curriculum domains and why they are necessary for VI Students.
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