Division on Visual Impairments

VIDBE-Q 69.2 SPRING 2024

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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VIDBE-Q Volume 69 Issue 2 2022), and reduce disparities among working professionals with disabilities. When students with disabilities choose to pursue careers in special education, they often enter the categorical area that reflects their own disability (Otis-Wilborn et al, 1991). The ripple effect, as noted for students in historically underrepresented and marginalized groups who are taught by teachers who share their identities (Egalite et al., 2015; Fregni, 2019; Redding, 2019), is a pool of potential teacher candidates with disabilities that exemplify possibilities for success in becoming these students' future role models (CEC, 2016; Neca et al., 2022). Unfortunately, becoming a teacher for an individual with a visual impairment (VI) presents attitudinal, environmental, and accessibility barriers that often lead to negative long-term consequences including leaving the teaching profession and scarred disability and teacher identities (Parker & Draves, 2017; Strimel et al., 2023). In seeking to learn more about how to support these students, I led a study that explored the experiences of teacher candidates with VI seeking careers as teachers of students with visual impairments (TSVIs). I aimed to learn about the motivating factors that led these students to pursue careers in education and how the experiences in their teacher preparation programs (TPPs) encouraged students' participation and persistence in higher education. I utilized qualitative research methodologies to not only interview teacher candidates but also field professionals and professors with VI to showcase a holistic picture of what it is

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