This article was shared with us by Ms. Elizabeth Dean, a homeschool instructor. During their discussions on accessibility in college for visually impaired students, we recently discovered your webpage: http://www.macularhope.org/patient-resources/, which we found immensely helpful for our class.
One of my students, Robin, came across an article on “Vision for Inclusion: College Accessibility for Visually Impaired Students.” I believe it would be a great addition to your webpage. To encourage Robin’s creativity, I suggested that he share the article with you. We would be thrilled if you could consider adding it to your site, even temporarily. Robin would be incredibly proud to see his research valued by a platform he admires.
Written by: Stephanie Spillmann
Reviewed by Benjamin Fultz
Introduction
Accessing higher education shouldn’t be hindered by a visual impairment. Yet, for many visually impaired students, the college experience presents a unique set of obstacles.
There’s a wide spectrum of visual impairments and various ways they can impact academic life. Each student has different needs. Addressing physical navigation challenges and utilizing orientation and mobility training are important steps to feeling prepared and confident before classes begin.
In addition, using cutting-edge technology and tools to encourage independence empowers students to succeed. Further support and guidance from the campus disability office paired with transportation accommodations round out the key steps for good inclusion practices on campus.
Defining visual impairment
Visual impairment involves much more than not having perfect vision. One common way to test vision is with eye charts. These measure how sharp our vision is at a distance.
Having 20/20 vision simply means that your vision is normal; you can see something 20 feet away with the same clarity that a person with normal vision could. The first number in “20/20 vision” represents how far away the patient is from the chart (in this case, 20 feet away), and the second number is the distance a person with normal eyesight can read the same line of characters.
Common eyesight terms
- Visual acuity – measures the sharpness of vision from a distance
- Visual fields – how much you can see to the sides when staring at something straight ahead
- Color vision – This measures how much and how accurately a person views colors. It’s especially important to see the difference between red and green when driving.
- Contrast sensitivity – This refers to how well you can see something against certain backgrounds. Some can only read black letters on a white background. Others may have trouble finding a black phone on a dark table. In the real world, stepping off curbs can be dangerous if you can’t distinguish the curb from the sidewalk.
- Glare sensitivity – Glare sensitivity refers to how well you can see contrast and objects with bright lights. Bright headlights at night can scatter light and prevent drivers from seeing what’s around them if they have severe glare sensitivity.
- Tunnel vision – People with tunnel vision have limited visual fields. When looking straight ahead, they see very little to the sides.
- Visual processing disorders – This includes a variety of problems, including difficulties with reading, writing, copying words, and remembering the forms of letters and numbers.
Degrees of visual impairment
The degree of visual impairment a student has can significantly influence how they navigate and access information on a college campus.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines visual impairment: “Visual impairment, including blindness, means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” This includes both partial sight and blindness.
Total blindness is not seeing any form of light and is notated as NLP (no light perception). This isn’t as common as people might think, as it only applies to around 15% of people with visual impairment.
In addition to total blindness, a wide range of visual impairments can affect students in college. Low vision is a common diagnosis, which encompasses reduced visual clarity, difficulty seeing details, light or glare sensitivity, and contrast deficits which make it hard to read on various colored backgrounds.
Those with partial vision have a limited degree of vision and may suffer from tunnel vision or significant visual field loss.
Additionally, visual processing disorders can lead to challenges with interpreting visual information despite normal eyesight. This is not a common problem, but it can have a large impact on student success.
Impact on daily life and academic pursuits
Visual impairment and blindness can present significant challenges in navigating the campus, accessing course materials, using technology, and participating in social activities.
Everyday tasks like reading signs, finding classrooms, and taking notes will require extra effort. Standard print materials, inaccessible classroom presentations, and reliance on visual cues can also lead to academic disadvantages.
Learning how to use assistive technologies and adjusting to unfamiliar environments can lead to stress and feelings of isolation.
Source:snappywords.com