VIDBE-Q Volume 66, Issue 2
27
to outside organizations. Additionally, agreement was not reached for some visual
skills such as depth perception, muscle balance, figure-ground perception, and
intermediate visual acuity. Even though consensus was not reached on these items,
professionals should consider that they can be useful aspects of an assessment for
some students.
We encourage TSVIs to review their assessment procedures and data
collection tools to ensure that they are collecting comprehensive information that
can be used by the educational team to plan instruction, meet the individual needs
of each student, and promote consistent access to educational materials. All
students with visual impairments should be considered for referrals for O&M
assessments regardless of eye condition, age, additional disabilities, or current
functional mobility. In addition, teachers may benefit from comparing their
assessment tools to the key findings. For example, are you interviewing key
personnel and assessing students in multiple environments? As needed, data
collection tools may be updated or revised. This could be accomplished by
individual teachers or groups of teachers. We also invite TSVIs to have
conversations with their peers about procedures and content included in FVAs. By
building consistency among professionals conducting FVAs, IEP teams will have
more useful data for designing goals, instruction, and accommodations.
