In February of 2009, the "Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness" ("JVIB") published the first articles under the heading of Practice Perspectives. These articles featured work by three professionals who described how they taught reading to children or adults. The feature reflects the commitment of the American Foundation…

Have you ever imagined yourself as a movie producer who could tell the stories of the remarkable successes in the field of visual impairment and blindness? With the right buildup music and the careful selection of a popular actor or a promising young ingenue (ideally, someone with a visual impairment), any one of these real-life stories could be a…

What is meant by the term "wellbeing"? Much has been written on the relationship between chronic illness and mental health outcomes, particularly in terms of "happiness", and the reciprocal relationship between physical and emotional health. Visual impairment research into wellbeing has tended to focus specifically on the concept of "emotional"…

While there are a number of technologies that have been used, with varying levels of success, to support visually impaired students, the purpose of this article is to reflect upon the authors' experiences of supporting a visually impaired student through a nine-month level two undergraduate biological psychology module. The authors developed a…

Inclusive practice is well embedded across society and has developed over time. However, although policy and public view have moved forward, the way organisations address the agenda for inclusion often represents a superficial interpretation of this concept. Qualitative data were gathered using new ethnography to explore the experiences of a…

With the passage of Goals 2000, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and the Education Science Reform Act of 2002, Congress has put a priority on a science curriculum for children that is based on research on the best practices in science education. According to the U.S. Department of Education, teachers "need to know what programs and…

The quality and the prevalence of education are the major indicators of the development of a society. It is a kind of human right to every person living in the society to be educated in a sufficient way. The education of the disabled people, a social reality in Turkey, is not sufficiently carried out. This paper aims at the education of the…

We all have what we may think of as our limits--degrees of competence we believe we cannot go beyond or skills we think we cannot master. It would be foolish to claim that each of us is capable of anything and everything to which we set our minds. But going to university is really about progressing beyond our perceived limits. In this article,…

The future of braille is discussed including possible code changes, the development of direct print reading devices, the use of paperless braille, modifications in the production process, and the development of teaching materials. (PHR)

The article presents a rationale for providing early intervention services to visually handicapped infants, followed by a discussion of implications of home programs for educators. Among guidelines offered are that educators should serve as clearinghouses of information for families and emphasize incidental learning in the actual environment.…

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art recently circulated an exhibition that explored the potential for visually handicapped visitors to benefit from the art museum experience. The author analyzes the inadequacies of past approaches, makes specific suggestions concerning design and materials, and calls for mutual understanding and compromise.…

This paper questions whether affordances are allied exclusively to dorsal stream processing within the visual system, or whether in fact different affordances are subserved by functionally independent neural pathways. Using case study evidence from patients with various visual pathologies, I argue that affordances can be categorised into type…

The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM; 2000) encourages students to experience mathematics in multiple contexts, including science, history, physical education, business sciences, and agricultural sciences. All educators, including professionals such as orientation and mobility specialists who work with students who are visually…

The author examines the history of segregation for blind and handicapped persons and the relationship of segregation to social attitudes and opportunities. He also questions the relevance of sheltered workshops today. The El Paso Lighthouse "enclave with industry" program is presented as one model for moving toward a "natural proportion"…

A man who lost his sight at age 63 recommends that rehabilitation of newly blinded persons should include development of remembered or created visual experiences through "videation" and explains the need of mental images for blind persons to adapt to their environment. (MC)