Join us October 27, 2025 at 4 PM EST for a new
webinar!
Powerful Partnerships: Improving Family-School
Relationships for Students with
Visual Impairments or Deafblindness
Members Free Nonmembers $20
Click here to Register
This presentation highlights the importance of partnerships between parents and teachers of students with
visual impairments and/or deafblindness. Several tools will be shared to provide concrete ways for
facilitating this partnership. These resources are cumulative over time, a way of building the relationship
and being responsive to student needs. Using a case study spanning from age two to eighteen, this
presentation will highlight relevant and cumulative collaborative techniques that can be used at different
stages of education in response to the changing needs at each point. These strategies are introduced in a
step-by-step fashion representing the order in which they would first be used, but they can be repeated
and/or maintained throughout the student's educational career resulting in an additive model of
collaborative tools.
Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will understand the unique dynamics that make collaboration between itinerant
teachers of students with sensory impairments and their families so crucial.
2. Learners will be exposed to a case study scenario illustrating how student, family, and teacher
characteristics change throughout the educational journey and how mutual respect and trust can be
facilitated at each point.
3. Participants will learn how to implement five data-based tools to foster collaboration and information
sharing between itinerant teachers and families.
focusing on relationship-based intervention Infant Mental Health Specialist and certified to
provide reflective consultation to therapists and other early childhood providers. After many
1 ACVREP Credit
Available
Speakers: Dr. Beth Jones & Dr. Belinda Rudinger, East Texas A & M University
Dr. Jones is currently a Professor of Special Education and Graduate Program Coordinator at East Texas
A&M University (ETAMU). Appointed by Governor Abbott, she serves as a Board Member at the Texas School
for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). She is also a recipient of the TAER Texas Chapter Award for
Outstanding Contribution (2021). Her research interests include collaboration with families, visual
impairments, and assistive technology.
Dr. Rudinger is an Assistant Professor of Special Education, a certified assistive technology instructional
specialist, and a former teacher of students with visual impairments. Her research interests include braille
and assistive technology. Dr. Rudinger was recently appointed to the board of the Texas School for the Blind
and Visually Impaired. She is currently the Vice President for the USA in the North American-Caribbean
Region of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI). She believes in
the power of technology to facilitate growth and connection.
