The Teacher of Children with Visual Impairments and Teaching Orientation and Mobility with Children Program is a collaborative program between the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies in WMU's College of Health and Human Services and the Department of Educational Studies (Special Education) in the College of Education. This program prepares students interested in working as a teacher of children with visual impairments or orientation and mobility specialist with children, or a dual program of both TCVI and O&M. The focus in this program is on the specific skills required for helping children with visual impairments to learn to lead full and productive lives.
Many choose to become dually certified in both teacher of children with visual impairments and orientation and mobility specialists for children. This combination of preparation helps the professional to understand and meet the total needs of the child. The combination is also in high demand in primarily rural areas where the number of children with visual impairments is too low to employ professionals separately educated in TCVI or OMC.
Teacher of children with visual impairments, orientation and mobility specialists for children and dual-specialists work primarily in public schools and residential schools for children with visual impairments. Personnel shortages exist in most states in the nation for people educated in these areas.
The teacher of children with visual impairments program teaches children with visual impairments the skills they will need to lead successful lives. These skills fall into two major areas:
Responsibilities regarding support for the academic curriculum include working in multiple ways with the regular classroom teacher to assure that the student with visual impairments can access the regular curriculum. Duties include transcribing materials into Braille or large print, modifying materials so they can be read tactually, and modifying test materials to accommodate for information not available through the visual channel.
In addition to modifying the typical curriculum, specialists are responsible for teaching children with visual impairment in the expanded core skill areas, including teaching Braille, daily living skills, social skills, adapted computer technology, and recreation and leisure activities. These skills are typically learned incidentally from watching others and are not readily available to children with visual impairments without specific instruction. The teachers will take the lead in teaching these skills to students with visual impairments and in helping parents and others to assist children to learn such skills.
Orientation and mobility specialist with children professionals also assist children with visual impairments to attain the skills they need to live successful lives. The specialist's responsibilities center mainly on skills such as independent travel and daily living skills. In addition to the typical orientation and mobility sequence (see Orientation and Mobility with Working Age Adults), orientation and mobility specialists for children professionals help children learn fundamental skills that support independence such as gross and fine motor skills, auditory skills, concept development, exploration and curiosity, problem solving, and environmental experiential activities.
