Lanya McKittrick, PhD

In this case study, an expert in special education and mother of a child who is deafblind describes replicable strategies that can be leveraged with deafblind students in distance learning. The author uses her family’s experience to discuss the struggles deafblind students face when moving to the virtual learning world, as well as the potential of the distance learning experience for students who are deafblind.

For our family, like many others, the first few weeks of remote learning were overwhelmingly hard. I was worried initially that my son, Dalton, a sixth-grader who has Usher syndrome and as a result is deafblind, would not be able to receive his IEP services and that he’d be unable to access his curriculum from home. I was also worried about how I was going to support him at home, while working and juggling the multiple priorities of a family of six. I didn’t want Dalton to regress academically or socially.

Students who are deafblind are a heterogeneous population. The effects and experience of deafblindness vary for each person. Dual sensory vision and hearing loss can create unique challenges when it comes to education. According to the National Center on Deaf-Blindness census, 14.2 percent of deafblind school-age students are taught in inclusive classrooms at least 80 percent of the day, and over 60 percent are educated in inclusive settings at least some of the day. (NCES, 2018). Social-emotional support and continuity of services is important for students who are deafblind because dual sensory loss can create feelings of isolation—feelings that can be even more prevalent during these uncertain times. This means that during this pandemic, it’s imperative that students continue to be able to access the curriculum and receive their needed services and supports, and that within this context of continuing support, IEP teams consider both academic progress and the social-emotional health of students.

Strategies for Accessing Curriculum, Supports, and Services at a Distance

But how is it possible to continue to serve these students when meeting in person is not possible? Flexibility and collaboration, both with families and with other educators, is vital. Professionals in the fields of visual impairments and deaf/hard of hearing are finding creative ways to support each other during this time. Professionals are also finding an even stronger need to partner with families. Bottom line? While it’s true that not every service is possible right now, there are many things that can be done.

As a parent, I see this time as an opportunity to slow down and to prioritize other areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) that have not previously been a focus for our family. The ECC defines a set of concepts and skills that require specialized instruction to support students who are blind or visually impaired in order to compensate for decreased opportunities to learn as a result of perceptual differences. The ECC includes skills like assistive technology, compensatory skills, orientation and mobility, self-determination, and social interaction.

In March, American Printing House for the Blind, California State University–LA, and Paths to Literacy (a joint project of Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Perkins School for the Blind), collaborated and began offering free virtual lessons on topics related to the ECC, for students with various abilities. The Virtual Expanded Core Education Learning (Virtual ExCEL) program has been very popular with educators and families, modeling ways services can be provided virtually.

Orientation and mobility (O&M) services are among the most difficult types of services to provide virtually, because things like white cane training are hard to do at a distance. But that doesn’t mean learning has to stop. Tracy Spohn, an O&M specialist, has found a fun way to make O&M services virtual by creating and sharing weekly podcasts openly to the field. The homeBOUND FOR ADVENTURE podcasts focus on topics such as community, maps and measurements, and landmarks and cues. Similarly, Dr. Rebecca Sheffield just began a podcast series, It’s My Job, where she facilitates an interview between a student who has a visual impairment and a professional who is visually impaired. These interviews are driven by career-related questions that are pertinent to the student. The goal of these podcasts is to find an interesting, engaging way to provide students information related to the career-awareness segment of the ECC. Parentmobility.com even has developed video trainings aimed at helping parents understand a variety of O&M topics.

As the school year comes to a close, we’re seeing some exciting and fun virtual summer opportunities for students who are blind or visually impaired. This comes at a great time since many in-person summer camps and opportunities have been canceled. The Inaugural Virtual ExCEL camp is being offered for free. Leader Dogs for the Blind is also offering a virtual summer experience aimed at helping teens build their independence.

“I had wrongly assumed that my son would have to go without services during COVID-19. But in working with his IEP team, I’m now seeing this as an opportunity to work on some different, yet equally important goals. I’m encouraged by how the field is really coming together to serve students and families like mine, in so many creative and fun ways.”

Our Family’s Journey With Distance Learning

Shortly after schools closed, I was in contact with our IEP team, and that helped me realize that my worries were unwarranted. As we near the end of the school year, I recognize that Dalton is thriving in ways I could have never imagined. He’s receiving weekly virtual tutoring from his Teacher of the Deaf, virtual occupational therapy, virtual check-ins from his related service providers (teacher of the visually impaired and O&M instructor). He’s learning braille remotely, and he’s spending more time focusing on the expanded core curriculum. He’s also receiving one-on-one check-in’s from his special education teacher and his mentor teacher. I believe the positive results are because of: 1) the collaboration among the IEP team, 2) the family support the IEP team is providing, 3) the strong communication between team members, including me and my son, 4) the team taking time to focus on the social emotional needs of my son, and 5) my ability to see firsthand what my son is struggling with and share it with the team.

Dalton shared with me that he feels more supported now than he has ever before. I am no longer concerned about regression and I know that, as an IEP team, we’re stronger than ever. Our experience speaks to what’s possible because of the flexibility and collaboration in the field of deafblindness. Our IEP team is taking the time to reflect on what worked so well for my son, and I have confidence that we’ll be stronger than ever as a team when we’re able to go back to school.

Although it looks different, teachers of the visually impaired, teachers of the deaf, and O&M specialists are finding innovative and creative ways to support the continued needs of students and their families. Although these resources have been created out of a need to find alternatives to being face-to-face, these new resources are going to be helpful after COVID-19 as well.