VIDBE-Q 2025 Volume 70 Issue 1
3. Attendees will have a demonstration of how the VISSPA works with a
case study of a vison professional's workload and will learn about the
results of the two validation studies that have been conducted on the tool.
This Division on Visual Impairments and Deafblindness (DVIDB) Pre-
Conference presentation will focus on an ongoing dilemma that many vision
professionals in our education field face on a daily basis: managing their workload.
The Visual Impairment Scale of Staffing Pattern Analysis (VISSPA) is a new
validated tool for itinerant teachers of students with visual impairments (TSVIs)
and orientation & mobility (O&M) specialists to use to analyze their workload
with quantitative data.
The VISSPA was developed and validated over the past 6 years by a team on
the Workload Analysis Subcommittee of the Texas Action Committee on
Education of Students with Visual Impairments, a stakeholder group dedicated to
addressing key issues in the field impacting students and professionals and that is
endorsed by the state education agency.
Two research studies have supported the validation and reliability of this
tool in analyzing the workload of these vision professionals. Understanding that
"caseload" and "workload" are two different measures is important. Caseload
refers to the number of students being served and the time spent in direct