VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 1
discussed the lack of high-quality, research based professional
development for teachers of the visually impaired (TVI) who serve students
with cortical vision impairment (CVI) throughout Oregon. The team at
Columbia Regional Program, led by Saaron Putnam-Almaguer, has been
providing training to our staff of TVI's, and to classroom teachers, OT's,
PT's and speech pathologists in our region for several years. Saaron has
earned several micro-credentials in CVI and has recently completed
courses in Cerebral Vision Impairment, Learning Media Assessment for
CVI and Cortical/Cerebral Vision Impairment through Salus University.
Saaron Putnam-Almaguer, Darlene Daniels and Claudia Swapp led our BVI
team through a year- long in-service training using the book Vision and The
Brain by Amanda Hall Lueck and Gordon Dutton as a guide. Columbia
Regional Program has also provided trainings on; Cortical Vision
Interventions, An Overview of CVI, Teaching Students with CVI: A
framework for assessment and intervention, Teaching Students with CVI:
Understanding and designing interventions, Scoring the CVI Range and
Functional Vision Assessment for Students with CVI. Through discussions
and work with our Vision Professional Learning Team, other regional
program teachers and leaders expressed interest in professional
development and discussed the need for more information about CVI,
