VIDBE-Q Volume 67 Issue 4
valued accordingly. Systemically speaking, low wages, high turnover rates, and
failure to consider interveners as key members of the educational team are chronic
problems that have not been resolved with current practices. In some cases, parents
have found themselves in conflict with their district to the extent that they have
gone to due process in order to obtain intervener services from an appropriately
trained intervener for their child.
Ultimately, the biggest losers in the current system are the children and
youth with deafblindness who cannot learn and progress, because they don't have
access to educational environments without the individualized support provided to
them by trained interveners. The data on outcomes for students who are deafblind
support the need for change in the delivery of services in the educational system.
National statistics on outcomes for children who are deafblind in terms of
employment and post-secondary education are dismal. However, there is emerging
evidence that intervener services play a vital role in improving post-secondary
outcomes for these students. In a study conducted in 2010, Petroff states:
This current study showed a surprisingly high percentage—nearly 40
percent—of youth that had an intervener or one-to-one assistant during the
last year in school. While further analysis is required, certain areas of
progress in the second group may be due to the presence of an
intervener. Such findings would strongly suggest that there should be
