The document discusses the impact of low vision and blindness on learning, defining both conditions and highlighting their prevalence and causes. It emphasizes the importance of early intervention, assessment, and specialized teaching methods to cater to the needs of students with visual impairments. Strategies for collaboration, prevention, and technology usage are also outlined to support these students in educational settings.

1. Prepared by: Ruba Al-Berjaoui
Presented to: Prof. Badriya El Daou
Ch:11 low vision and
blindness
How will this affect
learning?

2. Table of content
I. Definitions
II. Characteristics
III. Prevalence
IV. Causes
V. Prevention
VI. Assessment:
VII. Earlyintervention
VIII. How to teach students with hearing losses?
IX. Transition
X. Collaboration

3. The Federal government in Idea includes
blindness as part of its visual
impairments category and doesn’t define
low vision or blindness separately
Definitions:
Both are vision
impairements

4. So, Visual loss results when the body’s
mechanism for vision is damaged or
obstructed in such a way that objects in
the environment cannot be perceived or
understood

5. • Low vision: a level of vision which, with standard correction,
hinders and individual in the planning and/ or execution of a
task, but which permits enhancement of the functional vision
through the use of optical or no optical devices, environment
modifications.
• Blindness: visual acuity of 20/400, with the best
possible correction, or visual field of 10 degrees or
less

6. • Approximately 1.3 million Americans are
legally blind and some 10 million with low
vision or blindness.
• Vast majority of these people are over the age
of 65. only 4% of all blind people are children
Prevalence:

7. • Almost half of the children who are deaf are blind have the
disability because of prenatal factors, mostly hereditary.
• Genes that causes retinitis pigmentosa has now been
located and isolated, and there is hope for a cure in the
near future.
• Medical technology increases in this disability
• Today more infants survive premature birth and very low
birth weights of even less than two pounds. the result,
however, is often the child having multiple disabilities,
frequently including visual disability
Causes

8. • Early identification
• Is very important not only to reduce its impact on
learning but also to prevent the problem from
worsening
• For Ss’ who are very young or have multiple
disabilities, other testing are available for example
photo screening
• Ss’ visual acuity often is tested in the school nurse’s
office or by a pediatrician using the snellen chart
Assessment:

9. Identification: Visual Assessments
• Two types of eye specialists provide diagnosis
and treatment:
1) Ophthalmologists
2) Optometrists
optician

11. Types of Visual Loss
visual efficiency is influenced by many factors,
including the person's acuity and peripheral vision,
environmental conditions, and psychological variables
Visual acuity : is how well a person can see at various distances
Peripheral vision: is the width of person’s field of vision, it helps people move
freely through their environment and see large objects and movement. And
severe limitation in peripheral vision is sometimes called tunnel vision or
restricted central vision
The vast majority of people with visual disabilities use vision as their
primary method of learning
for many their residual vision ,
which is the amount of vision they
have left, can be further developed
Thus the eye is a very complicated
mechanism. Since any damage of any
part of the eye can result in serious
limitations in one’s abilities to see and
process information through the
visual channel

12. Early intervention
• A good preschool program can give
preschoolers with visual disabilities” the right
start” so that the disadvantages this disability
can cause are minimized. The teacher of a
preschool with visual disabilities should
coordinate a multidisciplinary team of
specialists including an ophthalmologist,
occupational therapist, physical therapist,
orientation and mobility instructor and social
worker

13. Degree of Visual Loss
• 1-low vision
• 2-blindness
Individuals with low vision use sight to learn, but their visual
disabilities interfere with daily functioning.

14. What does blindness mean?
Blindness means that the person uses touch and
hearing to learn and does not have functional
use of sight.

15. We can categorize individuals with
visual disabilities according to the Age
of Onset:
• Congenital blindness Adventitious blindness

16. The later the disability occurs,
the more they remember.
For this category : Visual memory is an
important factor in learning, for it can
influence one’s development of concepts and
other aspects important to learning.

17. Characteristics
• The needs of students with low vision differ
from the ones of students who are blind.

18. Students with low vision:
• Read print (12 pt. type)(slower than the
others)
• Typically access the general education
curriculum
• Require some extra assistance and some
accommodations from classmates and
teachers.
• Hold the book closer to their eyes.
• Adjust the size of print

19. However, audio versions of books,
personal readers, or computer-
generated print to voice systems may
be good alternatives.

20. Students who are Blind
• Need non print formats
such as (recorded, print-to-speech, or Braille)
• Need aids to move around independently.
• Should learn how to socialize and interact
easily with others.

21. Reading Braille
• Braille is a coded system of dots embossed on
paper so that individuals can feel a page of a
text.

22. The number of people who use Braille
is declining because:
• Teachers not knowing how to use or teach the
Braille method.
• Unavailability of teachers who know to teach
Braille.
• Increasing numbers of audio versions of books
• Cost and time of getting Braille versions of
books

23. Orientation and Mobility
• Orientation is the mental map that people
have of their surroundings.
• Mobility is the ability to travel safely and
efficiently from one place to another.

24. Blind individuals use the cane to help
them know the hallways ends, when
stairs begins, and when the doors are
reached.
Some use dogs to guide them.

25. transition
• Why do so many individuals who are blind have difficulty
finding good jobs?
- Bias and discrimination
- Lack of job skills and work experience
During high school, many sighted classmates hold jobs after
school or during summer. They learn about finding and
keeping jobs and also about salaries, wages and benefits.
For Ss’ who are blind, however, their high school years are
focused on educational tasks, and they often spend their
summer learning important skills(such as orientation and
mobility) that they need for independence

26. Collaboration
• Collaborative services from experts in the field
of visual disabilities should be available to all
Ss’ who have low vision or are blind,
regardless of where they go to school

27. Social skills
• For those whose vision is restricted, the
process of developing social skills happen with
more instructions and efforts.
• Children learn how to gain access to play
groups, resolve conflicts, attract the attentions
of peers, maintain friendships.
All these steps are done with a great HELP!

28. Prevention
• Visual disabilities can be greatly reduced by
protecting against eye injuries.
• Parents should not put sharp objects in front
of their kids.
• Toys should be safe.

29. Overcoming challenges: Technology
• The telephone and the phonograph are
examples of technological advances that were
created for the general population but have
special benefits for people with visual
disabilities.

30. • Large-print books, computerized versions of
popular novels, audio versions of books, and
computers have opened the door to facilitate
the life of the impaired students.

31. Teaching students with visual loss:
• Educational and developmental goals should
be set to benefit students who are blind.
Extra assistance Learn life skills Shop for food
Hold
competitive jobs

32. Access to general education
curriculum
• Students with visual disabilities can spend
their day in general education classrooms.
• They participate in the general education and
if they do not have coexisting disabilities, they
perform well academically.
• They may use several aids (such as glasses or
technology that enlarges type)

33. Partnerships with families and
communities
• Family members play very special roles as they
help their children grow up, and this is is
especially true of mothers of children with
visual disabilities.
• Parents must repeat, rephrase, fascilitate,
always give directions and instructions.

34. • Parents should help their children develop
many skills across: communication,
independent living, mobility, sensory
development, fine and gross motor skills, cogn
ition,and social skills.