VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 1
on Deafblindness, 2012). In most cases, this support is provided in one-on-
one fashion (Nelson, Bruce, & Barnhill (in press); Parker & Nelson, (2016);
What Every Educator Should Know, 2015). Critically, Interveners should
receive initial and ongoing training and coaching from a TDB (Parker &
Nelson, 2016).
Standards for the role of TDB had their genesis in a partnership
between the Hilton Perkins Foundation and several university partners. The
group came to consensus that there were seven major categories of
knowledge and skills needed by professionals in deafblindness: (a)
deafblindness, (b) personal identity, relations, and self-esteem, (c)
communication, (d) hearing and vision) (f) orientation and mobility, (g)
environment and materials, and (h) professional issues. Lead authors,
McCletchie & Riggio, 1997, aligned these with CEC Common Core
Knowledge and Skills for all beginning special education teachers in 1997.
In 2009, the CEC Division on Visual Impairments and Deafblindness
initiated competency efforts for both TDB and Interveners (Zambone &
Alsop, 2009). In 2015, both the TDB and Intervener knowledge and skills
sets were organized according to the current 7 guiding standards rather
than the prior 10 (Parker & Nelson, 2016).
