Q: What would the perfect sex education
curriculum look like for students with visual im-
pairments?
Alison: It would be the
same as their peers
and it would be based off the national health edu-
cation standards and the national sexuality edu-
cation health standards. All students would re-
ceive more instruction throughout their school-
age instruction. The difference for students with
visual impairment will come from differentiated
student instruction based off that same curricu-
lum.
Ongoing sex education would relieve some
of the stress for students who are visually im-
paired getting singled out when going over the
parts of reproductive systems. Having fewer
gaps in education (years between instruction or
only 2-3 lessons starting in 5th grade) I presume
would help with being able to cover more informa-
tion with greater depth. The more instruction
early on, the better students with VI can partici-
pate in important discussions and projects with
their peers.
Students in high school with the limited time
they receive health education (usually one se-
mester for all of high school) shouldn't be learning
about the reproductive parts but how to make
safe choices and how to use materials to keep
them safe (barriers to pregnancy/STIs and infor-
mation from sources). That information should be
in place for all students before high school.
In health education, some professionals
ha
ve advocated not teaching
body system
s v
ery
in depth because students can get that informa-
tion or refer to it on their own with a few clicks of
a mouse. I don't believe that is the right course
of action for students with visual impairments be-
23
can be hard. There are teaching strategies around
this but still some students are good at 'faking' it.
