Pathway To Licensure In Visual Impairment

The Ohio Department of Education has funded a program through the School Study Council of Ohio to address the shortage of professional personnel for students who are visually impaired. This program, at The Ohio State University, prepares Intervention Specialists who obtain licensure in visual impairment and is part of a total preparation program for teachers of children with disabilities.

• There have been more than 60 graduates from two training programs -- one at The Ohio State University and the other at the University of Toledo. At the time that this project was funded, there were approximately 65 Intervention Specialists in the field, 50% of whom would be eligible for retirement within five years. Thus, the number of Intervention Specialists prepared under the aegis of this grant totals as many as were in the field at the inception of the grant program. For the past 4 years, programs have been funded at both The Ohio State University and at the University of Toledo. It is anticipated that an additional 10 students will complete their preparation program by summer of 2010.

• There has been a high level of placement for all who earned licensure who sought teaching positions.

• Many courses in the training program are available online; thus there is capacity to serve statewide needs. Students enrolled in the program receive tuition support for course work leading to licensure. Students not enrolled in the licensure program can still take the courses for credit.

• Active recruitment has been ongoing with the development of a website and brochures which have been widely distributed at local sites and state and national professional meetings.

• Annual client satisfaction surveys and impact evaluations are conducted by SSCO. An online student satisfaction survey has been completed for 2008-09. An impact evaluation was also completed in November,2009.

• Project meetings held in Columbus provide opportunities for updates, problem solving and sharing of ideas and strategies.

Click here for Visual Impairment - ESC Job Postings

Please click here for Ohio Center for Deafblind Education information and products. Additional reading material can be found on our Publications page.

To access a descriptive brochure, please click on the OSU Vision Intervention Specialist.

For detailed information about the OSU Program in Visual Impairment, click on The Ohio State University.

Please click to review annual report for 2009.

For more resources regarding Visual Impairment, the following links are provided.

	American Council of the Blind
	Teaching Math to Visually Impaired Students
	American Printing House for the Blind
	National Federation of the Blind
	American Foundation for the Blind

For more information about the Pathway to Licensure in Visual Impairment, please contant:
  Dr. Peter Paul at The Ohio State University - paul3.@osu.edu
  Kathy Richards at SSCO - vision@ssco.org