Division on Visual Impairments

VIDBE-Q 67.2 Spring 2022

A quarterly newsletter from the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Visual Impairments containing practitioner tips for Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialists, and other professionals.

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Moreover, there were seven stories in which the character with a visual impairment had a passive voice, and there were two stories in which the character who is blind had no voice at all. For 29.41% of the books, it was the group's recommendation that they only be used by blindness experts. Since a truly inclusive book is not about disability (Beck, 2004), it is recommended that the story be written in a way that it is not dependent on visual impairment. In this analysis, there were two books where the reader did not even realize that the main character was blind until the end of the story. Along these lines, there needs to be a legitimate problem that is universally relatable, and there needs to be enough action to keep the young reader engaged. Finally, settings need to be inclusive, and the character with a visual impairment needs to be an active participant. Likewise, both the main characters and the supporting characters need to reflect the diversity found in society. (Unfortunately, 64.71% of the books reviewed had a unicultural focus rather than a multicultural focus.) Finally, it tends to be problematic when blindness and visual impairment is used as a metaphor as young readers do not understand exaggerations that tend to be made to emphasize an abstract moral. The highest ranked books in this inclusivity factor were My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, Lucy's Picture, and Keep Your Ear on the Ball.

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