The Experiences of Blind Multilingual Students in High School in the COVID Era This study used a focus group approach situated within Participatory Action Research to examine the experiences of blind multilingual students in high school. All participants were from Spanish-speaking households, and the focus group was held virtually in Spanish.…

The topic of this study was to provide a description of instruction identified and provided by teachers of students with visual impairments. It was not known how teachers describe vision interventions, environmental adaptations, and educational modifications for students with cortical visual impairment. The study was conducted in Southwest…

The field of professionals who work with students who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf-blind is facing a huge shortage. The problem to be addressed is the decreasing number of experienced teachers for the blind and visually impaired. The number of teachers for the visually impaired has school districts struggling to find teachers to work with…

Navigating indoors without a map can be challenging, especially for visually impaired individuals in unfamiliar settings. Many existing indoor navigation methods rely on building maps, pre-deployed infrastructure (like BLE beacons or RFID), or visual-based systems that require a clear line of sight to a camera. These requirements can make…

There is a gap in reading scores between blind/low-vision students and their sighted peers. The problem addressed in this study was that the reading interventions currently in use for blind/low vision students are not successful in closing the reading achievement gap at a Midwest secondary school for the blind and visually impaired. The purpose of…

Executive functions are higher order mental processes individuals use during academic tasks (Diamond, 2013). Few studies examined executive functions in braille reading. Additionally, most studies located by the primary researcher were studies analyzing group differences between individuals with visual impairments and those who are sighted and…

This work addresses visual content accessibility for blind and low vision communities through the lenses of technique development and community engagement with an overarching question of "How can we make tactile pictures more available?" This inquiry takes a participatory, action-based design approach to break this question down based on…

I was a person who identified as culturally Deaf but at the same time had progressive vision loss. I embraced my Deaf identity, but I did not embrace any inkling of identifying myself as a DeafBlind person considering the stigma associated with it. Due to that stigma, the journey of identifying as a DeafBlind person is difficult mentally,…

This phenomenological study sought to investigate, analyze and describe the effects of early intervention on college readiness and the transition plan for high school students with visual disabilities transitioning into post-secondary education. Exploring how students with visual disabilities are perceived, treated, and the barriers they face in…

Individuals with vision loss must be able to be safe and independent in their home and community. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, over 10 million Americans are coping with vision impairment or blindness. Technology has opened the doors for most individuals including individuals that are blind or visually impaired making the…

Filling out printed forms (e.g., checks) independently is currently impossible for blind people, since they cannot pinpoint the locations of the form fields, and quite often, they cannot even figure out what fields (e.g., name) are present in the form. Hence, they always depend on sighted people to write on their behalf, and help them affix their…

Youth with Usher syndrome (USH) can experience unique challenges in postsecondary preparation. Currently, there is a paucity of research addressing the postsecondary preparation experiences of youth with USH. The purpose of this study was to learn from college students with USH about their lived experiences of preparing for postsecondary…

Blind and low vision youth represent a diverse, low incidence disability student population in United States public schools. This qualitative study investigated the perspectives of four Black mothers and grandmothers, each primary caregivers of blind/low vision (BLV) children, related to their experiences with navigating the education system and…

Blind youth have reported unfavorable PE experiences, however, are optimistic that positive changes could be made. Despite recommendations to involve students in learning decisions, those made for teaching blind youth in PE have largely been constructed from non-disabled adults. This dissertation used a participatory research method and positioned…

Despite legislation being consistently passed to support post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities, year after year since the completion of "The National Longitudinal Transition Studies," national employment statistics continually demonstrate that implementation of intentions is wanting. A large percentage --50-60%-- of…