VIDBE-Q Volume 69 Issue 2
Saurym Quezada
Florida State University
squezada@fsu.edu
"I feel like if you want to mitigate the teacher shortage, especially in visual
impairment, then you need to be tapping into the visually impaired group of people
because … once you get a blind person on a job, they don't want to leave." -
Professor with Vision Loss
The importance of representation of diverse identities in the teacher
workforce is well-acknowledged (Sleeter & Kumashiro, 2014; CEC, 2016;
Kozleski & Proffitt, 2019). While the majority of the discourse in this area refers to
the racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds of educators (Egalite et al., 2015;
Redding, 2019), disability identity should not be ignored. Students in historically
underrepresented and marginalized groups have shared about the impact of having
teachers who share their identities (Fregni, 2019). College students with disabilities
who are pursuing degrees in special education should be seen as opportunities to
combat field shortages, increase positive disability representation (Neca et al.,
Visual Disabilities and Teacher Preparation
Programs: Enabling Untapped Potential
