Expanded Core Curriculum for Students who are Visually Impaired (ECC-VI)

Technology and the use of assistive technology provide students with visual impairments with the tools to effectively communicate and access information; therefore, they are great equalizers. This may include accessing, responding, storing, and/or retrieving information, and communicating in school and home environments. Assistive technology assessments help determine the most appropriate tools for the task and the environment, and the training needed forco students to effectively use them.

Unemployment and underemployment are primary issues facing adults with visual impairment, which makes this portion of the ECC vitally important for students with visual impairments of all ages.

While the skills and knowledge about career options offered to students through general vocational education can be of value to students with visual impairments, these students are at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding career options. They lack the ability/access to spontaneously acquired information about work and jobs that their peers acquire through visual observation. Career education provides students with visual impairments with the opportunity to learn first-hand the work done by various occupations, such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, psychologists, social workers, bank tellers, gardeners, and artists.

Career education allows students to explore student strengths and interests in a systematic, well-planned manner. Because unemployment and underemployment have been primary issues facing adults with visual impairments, this portion of the ECC is vital for students with visual impairments of all ages.

Compensatory and functional skills include concept development, spatial understanding, study and organizational skills, speaking and listening skills, and adaptations necessary for accessing information and materials. These skills are not sufficiently addressed in the general education curriculum. Instruction in this area should be provided by a TVI to address the skills that must be mastered. Additional specialists may be needed to support students who are deaf-blind or who have additional disabilities

Independent living skills are also referred to as “daily living skills.” It includes all the tasks and functions individuals perform, in accordance with their abilities, to lead lives as independently as possible. For students with visual impairments curricular needs vary and include skills in personal hygiene, food preparation, money management, time monitoring, and organization, to name a few. Some independent living skills are addressed in the general education curriculum; however, they appear sporadically in learning activities. Traditional classes in family and consumer sciences assume a basic level of knowledge typically acquired through vision and are therefore not adequate to prepare for adult life. If planned, sequential, deliberate instruction is not provided, gaps in learning or splinter skills may result.

O&M instruction is a sequential process in which individuals with visual impairments are taught to utilize their remaining senses to determine their position in space and to use specific techniques and tools to safely and efficiently navigate from one place to another. It emphasizes the fundamental need and basic right to travel and explore as independently as possible. The goal of O&M instruction is to enable individuals to move confidently and safely through familiar and unfamiliar environments whether in the school, home, or community. Certified Orientation 7 Mobility Specialists (COMS) are the professionals qualified to provide this kind of instruction.

Recreation and leisure skills are typically taught in the form of team games and athletics. Students with visual impairments need to learn the skills necessary to safely and independently participate in recreation and leisure activities throughout their lives. The teaching of recreation and leisure skills must be planned and deliberately taught and should focus on the development of life-long skills.

Self-determination is the ability for people to control their lives, reach goals they have set, and take part fully in the world around them. Self-determination skills enable students with visual impairments to become effective advocates for themselves, based on their own needs and goals. These skills focus on students believing in themselves, advocating for themselves, and understanding their abilities and limitations.

Instruction in sensory efficiency skills teaches students with visual impairments how to integrate all of the remaining senses to counter the impact of any missing or impaired sense. These skills help students with visual impairments use their senses, including any functional vision, hearing, touch, smell (olfactory), and taste (gustatory). Examples of sensory efficiency skills that students may learn include the use of optical devices to enhance remaining vision; the use of augmentative and alternative devices to increase communication; the use of amplification to provide enhanced sound; the use of touch and vision to identify personal items; the use of tactual, gustatory, and olfactory input rather than visual cues to identify foods; and the use of hearing to identify familiar people.

For students with visual impairments, it is difficult for social interaction skills to be learned casually and incidentally. Almost all social skills used by sighted children and adults have been learned by visually observing the environment and the interactions of other people within it. Instruction in social interaction skills as part of the ECC is so fundamental that it can often mean the difference between social isolation and a satisfying and fulfilling life as an adult.