Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness

There are significant personnel shortages in education and rehabilitation in the field of blindness and visual impairment. Some university-based programs that prepare teachers, orientation and mobility specialists, rehabilitation teachers and counselors, and low vision specialists to serve individuals with visual impairments strive to increase the number of service providers and assist professionals in maintaining skills and best practices in many ways. This article provides a brief overview of one approach—distance education.

This survey found that over half the personnel preparation programs for teachers of children with visual impairments, orientation and mobility specialists, and rehabilitation teachers included a distance education component and used a wide variety of technology and instructional methods. Most programs also had a field experience component and relied on external funding for support.

This article describes an innovative year-round program for students who live at a distance from San Francisco State University and examines its strengths and weaknesses based on feedback from instructors and students. The goal has been to develop a high-quality program that is sustainable and affordable without the need for substantial outside funding.

This article presents the results of an evaluation of a web-based course in braille code skills for preservice teachers of students with visual impairments. The findings revealed that the online course offered a high-quality, rigorous approach to delivering instruction in braille code skills when students had appropriate technology skills and equipment and were independent, persistent learners.

This article describes the components of the courses and gives examples of activities that one professor used in a program to prepare teachers of children with visual impairments using a combination of live and Internet delivery.

This study examined the perceptions of 12 students or graduates of a distance education training program in teaching students with visual impairments. Participants in the study discussed their experiences with courses delivered via interactive video, over the Internet, and by live instructors.

Distance education is a well-established medium for training specialist teachers of children with visual impairments at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. This article describes the background and organization of the program, analyzes its outcomes, and considers the challenges the program will face in the future.

Master's degree students with visual impairments preferred alternative teleconferencing to the use of real-time Internet for the delivery of distance education courses, although most did not have to learn new assistive technologies to participate in the program. They thought that the program's faculty and staff were more accessible than other university personnel using e-mail and phone and that the program's web site was a good source of general information.

This article discusses the distance education program of the Hadley School for the Blind. The school provides correspondence courses free of charge to people with visual impairments and their families, as well as to professionals and paraprofessionals in the field of visual impairment. The article describes the school's programs and services, as well as strategies that the school uses to reach out to students.