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VIDBE-Q Volume 64 Issue 3
grade-level content standards. This webinar will explore an expanded
definition of literacy which addresses the educational needs of these learners
as well as provide suggestions for meaningful emergent literacy activities and
resources to assist in planning.
The essential importance of promoting literacy lies in the access to
information it provides us about our world as well as access to the people in
it. Barbara Miles wrote, "Literacy generally refers to the ability to read and
write. Reading and writing are symbolic systems that allow people to receive
and send information across distances of time and space" (Miles, 2005, p. 2).
This traditional definition and view of literacy can lead to significant barriers
for those students who are visual impaired or deafblind with additional
extensive support needs. Students who, due to intellectual disabilities and/or
multiple sensory and physical impairments, are not able to learn to read text
or braille are at times not offered instruction that leads to relevant literacy skill
acquisition due to perceptions about their ability to engage with curriculum
and develop traditional literacy skills. These students require educators to
think about literacy and their curriculum in a fundamentally different way—
specifically linking emergent literacy instruction to communication. An
educational agency in Alberta, Canada describes the connection between
communication and literacy skill development when planning instruction for
