VIDBE-Q Volume 67 Issue 4
GOAL 2: Establish a strong national foundation for intervener training and
workplace supports.
The five recommendations for Goal 2 emphasize the need to strengthen the
system of preparing, training, and supporting interveners. They are intended to
increase the number of well-trained interveners available for children who require
their services and help ensure that interveners have knowledgeable supervisors and
access to experts in deaf-blindness. Many survey and interview respondents and
panel participants expressed concerns about focusing on interveners while not
simultaneously addressing the need for teachers of the deaf-blind. These responses
led to the creation of Recommendation 4 ("Develop strategies to ensure that
interveners have knowledgeable supervisors and access to experts in deaf-
blindness who can provide consultation and coaching"). NCDB's Intervener
Initiative was later expanded to the Interveners and Qualified Personnel Initiative.
GOAL 3: Build the capacity of families to participate in decisions about
intervener services for their children and in efforts to improve these services.
Input received from families indicated the need for specific family support.
The two recommendations for Goal 3 involve providing tools and resources to help
families effectively participate in decisions made about intervener services for their
children as well as opportunities to work together to improve local, state, and
national intervener services.
