Abstract
For nearly three decades, students seeking master's degrees at Florida State University as they prepared to be professionals in the field of services to people with visual impairments were required to review the research literature on some topic related to their major and prepare a 20-page term paper describing their findings. This exercise provided students with an important opportunity to explore the literature, critically review research studies, and to demonstrate professional writing skills. Topics had to be approved by a faculty member, whose responsibilities were to gently guide students to topics for which the literature base was robust enough to support students’ work. Few student-suggested topics elicited a louder groan in me than did the subject of social skills—such an important concept, but so complex to explore, especially by university students with limited teaching experience and (at best) novice skills at reviewing research.
In this issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), a much more experienced group of researchers tackle the published research on social skills instruction designed to improve the social competence of students with visual impairments. Caron, Barras, van Nispen, and Ruffieux conducted a systematic review of 32 studies in which a social skills intervention was tested on school-age students. Their results highlighted the complexity of the construct of social competence. Even after categorizing the target of these studies using the dimensions identified by Caldarella and Merrell (1997; peer relations, self-management, academic independence, and productivity, compliance, and assertion), they noted much heterogeneity in targeted skills. For example, in the category of peer relations, they found studies targeting greetings and initiating conversations, social interactions, the direction of gaze, reduction in inappropriate behaviors, and using sound toys to increase peer play. These studies not only used different methodologies, but differed in the tools used to measure the dependent variables. No wonder my university students were challenged to get a good handle on this topic!
The good news is that Caron and her colleagues determined that most of the intervention studies they examined were of moderate to high quality and that students’ targeted skills improved in all but two instances. They noted, however, that given the heterogeneity of the studies, it remains difficult to recommend specific interventions for use with students. Their paper on this critical topic is an important contribution to the literature—one that will be welcomed by both serious investigators hoping to build on the research base and by university students alike.
The impact of the development of positive social interaction skills is manifested throughout one's life. This point is evident in the findings reported by Steverson and Crudden, who studied the predictors of job satisfaction in adults with visual impairments and whose paper is also included in this issue. Using multiple regression techniques, Steverson and Crudden determined that social interactions in the workplace, both with colleagues and supervisors, were meaningful predictors of job satisfaction. They recommended that service providers assisting adults with finding and maintaining employment identify strategies to facilitate these positive interactions. Though not stated, readers can infer that having the social competence to engage in positive interactions with colleagues and supervisors is critical to the success of these efforts.
The knowledge base of many areas of concern to JVIB readers is expanded through other articles included in this issue. Cushley and her colleagues examine certifications of diabetic eye disease in Northern Ireland over a 5-year period, noting that the individuals with this eye condition are more likely to be younger and male than others identified with visual impairments in that country over the same time period. Our understanding of the feasibility of a new system that supports independent access to STEM diagrams by students who are blind—but not by students with low vision—is enhanced after reading the research conducted at Alchemie Solutions by Wegwerth and her colleagues. Schles and Travers, through their examination of the variation in definitions used for eligibility as a student with visual impairment in the United States, highlight challenges to equitable services across the country.
JVIB readers—including students at universities in personnel preparation programs who are required to write term papers—are indebted to research teams like Caron et al., Steverson and Crudden, and other researchers who continue to contribute to our understanding of the complex issues faced by the field of services to people with visual impairments. Through their work, service providers have greater information upon which to more confidently meet clients’ and students’ needs, other researchers have a firmer foundation upon which to design-related studies, and, hopefully, the lives of people who are blind or have low vision are improved.