Visual Impairments including

Blindness

Whats Inside?
Causes
Prevention
Characteristics
Instructional Strategies

What is Visual Impairment?

Effect on Adolescents
Effect on Adults
Current Trends

An impairment in vision that, even with correction,

adversely affects a childs educational performance.
The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

Causes
People rarely lose their eyesight during their teen years.
When they do, it's usually caused by an injury like
getting hit in the eye or head with a baseball or having
an automobile or motorcycle accident.
Some babies have congenital blindness, which means
they are visually impaired at birth. Congenital
blindness can be caused by a number of things it can
be inherited, for instance, or caused by an infection
that's transmitted from the mother to the developing
fetus during pregnancy.
Conditions that may cause vision loss after birth
includes:

Prevention of Visual
Impairments
Your child should be checked for
vision problems by an
ophthalmologist, optometrist,
pediatrician, or other trained specialist
at:
-newborn to 3 months 6 months to 1
year
-about 3 years about 5 years
Having your childs vision checked is
especially important if someone in
your family has had vision problems.

-Amblyopia (pronounced: am-blee-oh-pee-uh) is

reduced vision in an eye caused by lack of use of that
eye in early childhood. This is also known as a "lazy
eye."
-Strabismus (misaligned or crossed eyes)
-Cataracts are cloudy areas in part or the entire lens of
the eye. In people without cataracts, the lens is crystal
clear and allows light to pass through and focus on the
retina.
-Diabetic retinopathy (pronounced: reh-ton-ah-pathee) occurs when the tiny blood vessels in the retina
are damaged due to diabetes. Teens who have diabetes
should be sure to get regular eye exams because there
are no early warning signs for this condition.
-Glaucoma is an increase in pressure inside the eye.
The increased pressure impairs vision by damaging the
optic nerve. Glaucoma is mostly seen in older adults,
although babies may be born with the condition and
children and teens can sometimes develop it as well.
-Macular degeneration (pronounced: mah-kyoo-lur
dih-jeh-nuh-ray-shun) is a gradual and progressive
deterioration of the macula, the most sensitive region
of the retina. The condition leads to progressive loss of
central vision (the ability to see fine details directly in
front).

Instructional Strategies
The classroom teacher should encourage
independence as often as possible to avoid the
trap of learned helplessness.
Encourage the student to move independently
through the classroom, and organize your
classroom accordingly.

can see the blackboard.

Control lighting variables when presenting
learning materials to those students who are
sensitive to light and glare.
Use verbal cues with those students who cannot
see body movements or physical cues.

Materials, desks, and other objects in the

classroom should be maintained in consistent
locations.

Access to textbooks and instructional materials

in the appropriate media and at the same time
as their sighted peers.

Ensuring that cabinets are fully closed, chairs

pushed in, and doors are not left half ajar will
help with safety in navigating the classroom.

Braille and/or recorded media.

For students with low vision, make sure that he

or she is near the front of the room where he

For the student with low vision, this may mean

large print text or the use of optical devices to
access text and/or recorded media while in
class.

Characteristics
A decreased visual acuity and visual fieldA number of other vision problems may also impact
the visual functioning of the student with visual
impairment. There may be issues with sensitivity to
light or glare, blind spots in their visual fields, or
problems with contrast or certain colors. The
characteristics also include blindness.

Effect on Adolescents
Several factors that impact adolescents with
visual impairments include:
Parents reactions to their blindness
Lack of eye contact
Person and object permanence
Body image
Overprotection
Self-acceptance

Effect on Adults
If the adult has no intellectual disabilities, the
difficulties they will find will be in ensuring that
they places they go and work are in compliance
with ADA mandates for persons with
disabilities, to include Braille and large type
print.

Current Trends
Overall, visual impairment worldwide has
decreased since the early 1990s. This is despite
an aging global elderly population. This
decrease is principally the result of a reduction
in visual impairment from infectious diseases
through public health action. Assistive
technology in schools for students with visual
impairments is also increasing.

Online Resources
http://projectidealonline.org/visualImpairments.php
http://teenshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/sight/visual_i
mpairment.html#
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/Vision
LossFactSheet.pdf
http://www.icevi.org/publications/ICEVI-WC2002/papers/01topic/01-forteza.htm
http://www.compuaccess.com/ada_guide.htm

Notes: