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VIDBE-Q Volume 63 Issue 3
define the knowledge and skills professionals must have to begin their work in
specific areas within special education.
Those teachers who are in their careers and wish to deepen their understanding
of skills and knowledge will be involved in programs that follow the advanced set
of standards. The larger CEC organization has a set of advanced standards that
those programs would need to follow for purposes of advanced accreditation.
Currently our division does not have a specialty set of advanced specialty
standards.
DVIDB supports both the initial CEC standards and the advanced set of
standards.
3. Who determines what should be included in CEC's Division on Visual Impairment
and Deafblindness (DVIDB) Initial Specialty Set: Blind and Visual Impairments?
1. Are parents/families of students with visual impairments involved? If so,
how?
2. Are people who are blind/visually impaired involved? If so, how?
The standards were developed as part of work that spanned over 2 years.
Teams of people met at national conferences to discuss the standards and
provide input. Anyone with interest in the standards who could not attend the
conferences could provide input through email to the chair of the committee. The
standards were available for public comment throughout the 2 years. Updates
on the standards revision process were provided quarterly in our division journal.
Comments and suggestions were submitted by anyone who had an interest in
the process and concerns on the knowledge and skill levels of pre-service TVIs.
Therefore, parents, families, and persons with visual impairments were all invited
to make comments throughout this process. All suggestions and comments were
taken back to a committee of persons in personnel preparation for consideration.
The final document reflects the recommendations of the field.
4. What about specific standards for teaching students with:
1. deafblindness?
2. multiple disabilities?
3. specific types of blindness/visual impairment such as cortical/cerebral
visual impairment?
Deafblindness is recognized as its own category in statute and regulation in
the United States, Canada, and other countries. Standards for teachers of
the deafblind and interveners who serve students who are deafblind follow the
same process for review, alignment, and validation. Deafblindness is not
specifically written into the standards, since a specialty set will be written for
