VIDBE-Q Volume 67 Issue 4
students with deafblindness who have intervener services varies by state, and the
overall range is from 0 to 30 students.
1A Q: Of those interveners, how many have earned either the national
intervener credential or the NICE certificate?
For clarification purposes, a 'certificate' entails completion of the Open Hands,
Open Access (OHOA) modules and successful review and submission of the
portfolio . A 'credential' requires college-level coursework plus a portfolio
submission.
R: This data includes only the 17 projects that responded to the initial survey.
Of the 30 projects interviewed, the results were varied, and those results aren't
reported here. Of the 17 projects, 8 projects reported that of the participants
involved in training, 0 completed the full process to obtain the certificate or
credential. The other 9 projects reported that out of 81 participants in intervener
training, 43 obtained the certificate or credential. The numbers reported are low in
consideration of the NCDB annual child count for children who are deafblind.
1B Q: If interveners have not earned their credential or certificate, what
barriers have prevented this?
R: SDBPs reported the following:
• The issue of qualified personnel for children and youth who are deafblind
(e.g., interveners and teachers of the deafblind) is not mentioned in IDEA
