Table of Contents

The Core Curriculum for

Blind and Visually Impaired Students, Including Those

With Additional Disabilities[1]

PHIL HATLIN

Some years ago, a reporter asked a prominent blind woman, "What is it that blind people would want from society?" Her response was, "The opportunity to be equal and the right to be different."

Opportunities for equality grew tremendously in the 20th century, as Lowenfeld 1975) so graphically portrayed in The Changing Status of the Blind: From Separation to Integration:

In the field of education then the move from separation to integration is evident. Educational provisions for blind children, the administration of these educational provisions, and teacher preparation, all moved from special or separated arrangements to integrated ones. This move has been consistently spearheaded and ­supported by legislation (p. 117).

Lowenfeld believed that the American creed (all of us are equal under the law) had resulted in educational integration for blind and visually impaired students. Integration with their sighted peers, which began for visually impaired students at the turn of the century, has provided these students with the opportunity to be equal. All of us--parents, consumers, and professionals-- continue to promote equal opportunities for blind persons. But how do we feel about, and how do we react to, "the right to be different?" What did this woman mean by two remarks that seem diametrically opposite? Perhaps she meant that print and Braille are equal, but very different; that the need for independent travel is similar for sighted and blind persons, but that blind people learn the skills very differently. Perhaps she was emphasizing that blind people should have the oppor­tunity to learn the same knowledge and skills as sighted people, but that much of what sighted people learn incidentally and spontaneously blind people learn differently.

The integration (soon to be called mainstreaming and then inclusion) of blind students into regular classrooms in great numbers, beginning in the 1950s, brought with it the belief that adapted academic material was all that visually impaired students needed to be able to learn in the regular classroom. Few, if any, changes or additions were made to the curricula offered to these students. The efforts to include visually impaired students in regular classrooms sometimes attempted to provide "the opportunity to be equal" without recognizing the student's "right (and need) to be different."

Visually impaired students have succeeded in mastering the curriculum developed for sighted students. If the educational system provides students who have a necessary foundation of experiential learning with appropriate educational materials, and if there are excellent support services, including qualified and credentialed teachers of visual­ly impaired students and orientation and mobility instructors, then the existing curriculum for sighted students will provide the visually impaired student the "opportunity to be equal."

However, "the right to be different" clearly implies that there is more to educating visually impaired students than providing them with curriculum identical to that of sighted students. This added curriculum that is specific to visually impaired students is well known, but has not been diligently implemented. Could it be that parents and professionals have no problem with the "opportunity to be equal" but have difficulty with "the right to be different?"

For many reasons, professionals in education for visually impaired learners have not easily accepted the concept that visually impaired students have educational needs that are in addition to the curriculum required for sighted students. Some are loathe to give up the belief that there is no difference between the educational needs of sighted students and visually impaired students. Others have difficulty accepting the idea that an expanded curriculum is the responsibility of educators; time or size of caseload, or both, make it impossible for others to add to their teaching responsibilities. Goal 8 of the National Agenda (see page 17) directly addresses this issue and will bring educators and parents together to ensure an appropriate education based on this expanded core curriculum for American young people who are blind and visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities.[2]

What Is a Core Curriculum?

Educators define core curriculum as the knowledge and skills, generally those relat­ed to academic subjects, a student should have learned by high school graduation. Each state in the United States establishes minimum standards for high school graduation, and this core curriculum becomes the foundation for almost all learning, from kindergarten through high school.

Educators of visually impaired students can use their expertise in curriculum adaptation to adapt any curriculum and make it readily available for visually impaired learners. If accessibility to learning materials is the only problem the visual impairment presents, then educating visually impaired students can be solved by adaptation of the existing core curriculum.

But most professionals firmly believe that visually impaired students need an expanded core curriculum that requires additional areas of learning. Experiences and concepts casually and incidentally learned by sighted students must be systematically and sequentially taught to the visually impaired student.

Professionals and parents have discussed the concept of a core curriculum for visually impaired learners for many years. It has had many names: the specialized curriculum, specialized needs, the unique curriculum, unique needs, nonacademic curriculum, the dual curriculum, and most recently, the disability-specific curriculum.

These terms sometimes distract from the important issue. Using the term core curriculum for blind and visually impaired students to define the basic educational needs for these young people conveys the same message as the original core curriculum. Words like specialized unique, and disability-specific are not needed and, indeed, may give an erroneous connotation to basic educational needs. Those terms imply two separate lists of educational needs for visually impaired students: one list that contains the elements of a traditional core curriculum; the second a list of disability-specific needs. Two lists might provide educators with options, such as a list of requirements and one of electives. There should be only one list---the required core curriculum for visually impaired students.

The expanded core curriculum now being promoted is not new. Elements of it have been known for years. References to grooming skills date back to 1891. The need for social interaction skills appeared in the literature in 1929 and again in 1948. Between 1953 and 1975, more than two dozen books and articles were written about daily li­ing skills and visually impaired students. Much more has been written about orientation and mobility and career education.

The Expanded Core Curriculum for Blind and Visually Impaired

Children and Youths

The lists below incorporate the basic subject competencies now required by states and the competencies of the expanded core curriculum for visually impaired students. Some of the skills compensatory or functional academic skills, including communication modes; orientation and mobility; social interaction skills, visual efficiency skills-are either not in the regular core curriculum or not in it with sufficient specificity to meet the needs of visually impaired students. Others---independent living skills, recreation and leisure skills, career education, and technology---although addressed in the regular core curriculum, are done so inadequately for the needs of visually impaired students.

In this area, a distinction must be made between compensatory skills and functional skills. Compensatory skills are those that blind and visually impaired students need to access all areas of core curriculum. Mastery of compensatory skills will usually mean that the visually impaired student has access to learning in a manner equal to that of sighted peers. Functional skills refers to the skills that students with multiple disabilities learn that provide them with the opportunity to work, play, socialize, and take care of personal needs to the highest level possible.

These academic skills include learning experiences such as concept development, spatial understanding, study and organizational skills, speaking and listening skills, and the adaptations necessary for accessing all areas of the existing core curriculum. Communication needs will vary, depending on the degree of functional vision, the effects of additional disabilities, and the task to be done. Children may communicate through Braille, large print, print with the use of optical devices, regular print, tactile symbols, a calendar system, sign language, recorded materials, or combinations of these means. Whatever the choice of materials, each student with a visual impairment will need instruction from a teacher with professional preparation in each of the compensatory and functional skills they need to master. These compensatory and functional needs of the visually impaired child are significant.

Orientation and Mobility

This is a vital area of learning, which requires delivery by teachers with specific preparation. It emphasizes the fundamental need and basic right of visually impaired people to travel as independently as possible, enjoying and learning to the greatest extent possible from the environment through which they are passing Students will need to learn about themselves and the environment in which they move-from basic body image to independent travel in rural areas and busy cities.

Social Interaction Skills

Sighted children and adults have learned almost all their social skills by visually observing other people and behaving in socially appropriate ways based on that information. Blind and visually impaired individuals cannot learn skills of social interaction in this casual and incidental fashion. They learn them through careful, conscious, and sequential teaching. Instruction in these skills is such a fundamental need that it can often mean the difference between social isolation and a satisfying and fulfilling life as an adult.

Independent Living Skills

This area, often referred to as daily living skills, consists of all the tasks and functions people perform, according to their abilities, in order to live as independently as possible. These curricular needs are varied and include among others skills in personal hygiene, food preparation, money management, time monitoring, and organization. The existing core curriculum addresses some independent living skills, but they often are introduced as "splinter skills," appearing in learning material, disappearing, and then reappearing. This approach will not adequately prepare blind and visually impaired students for adult life. Traditional classes in home economics and family life are not enough to meet the learning needs of most visually impaired students because they assume a basic level of knowledge, acquired incidentally through vision. As with the skills of social interaction, blind and visually impaired students cannot learn these skills without direct, sequential instruction by knowledgeable people.

Recreation and Leisure Skills

The existing core curriculum usually addresses the needs of sighted students for physical fit­ness through physical education in the form of team games and athletics. Many activities in physical education are excellent and appropriate for visually impaired students, but these students also need to develop recreational and leisure activities that they can enjoy throughout their adult lives. Sighted people usually select such activities by visually observing them and choosing those in which they wish to participate. Recreation and leisure skills must be deliberately planned and taught to blind and visually impaired students and should focus on the development of life-long skills.

Career Education

Many of the skills and knowledge offered to all students through vocational educa­tion will not be sufficient to prepare blind and visually impaired students for adult life. They will also need career education offered for them specifically because here, too, general instruction assumes a basic knowledge of the world of work based on prior visual experiences. Career education in an expanded core curriculum should begin in the earliest grades to give the visually impaired learner of all ages the opportunity to learn firsthand about the variety of work people do. It will give the student chances to explore strengths and interests in a systematic, well-planned manner. Unemployment and underemployment are leading problems facing adult visually impaired people in the United States, making this portion of the expanded core curriculum vital to students.

Technology

Technology is a tool to unlock learning and expand the horizons of students. It is not, in reality, a curriculum area, but it is added to the expanded core curriculum because of the special place it occupies in the education of blind and visually impaired students. Technology can be a great equalizer. For the Braille user, it will produce material in Braille for personal use and then in print for the teacher, classmates, and parents. Technology enables blind people to store and retrieve information and brings a library under the fingertips of the visually impaired person. It enhances communication and learning and expands the world of blind and visually impaired persons in many significant ways.

Visual Efficiency Skills

The visual acuity of children diagnosed as visually impaired varies greatly. With thorough, systematic training, most students with functional vision can learn to use their remaining vision better and more efficiently. Educational responsibility for performing a functional vision assessment, planning appropriate learning activities for effective visual use, and teaching students to use their functional vision effectively and efficiently falls to the professionally prepared teacher of visually impaired learners.

It is difficult to imagine that a congenitally blind or visually impaired person could be entirely at ease within the social, recreational, and vocational structure of the gen­eral community without mastering the elements of the expanded core curriculum. We know that unless congenitally blind and visually impaired students learn skills such as orientation and mobility, social interaction, and independent living they are at high risk for lonely, isolated, unproductive lives. For blind and visually impaired people, accomplishments and joys such as shopping, dining, attending and participating in recreational activities are a right, not a privilege. Responsibilities such as banking, taking care of health needs, and using public and private services are a part of a full life for every one, including those who are blind or visually impaired. Adopting and implementing a core curriculum for blind and visually impaired students, including those with additional disabilities, will assure students of the opportunity to function well and completely in the general community.

This expanded core curriculum epitomizes the "right" of the visually impaired student "to be different." It is the heart of the responsibility of educators serving visually impaired students.

Children With Additional Disabilities

The components of the expanded core curriculum give educators the means to address the needs of visually impaired children with additional disabilities. The educational requirements of these children are often not met because their lack of vision is considered "minor," especially if the child has severe cognitive and physical disabilities. Appropriate professionals can further define each area in the expanded core curriculum to address the educational issues facing these children and assist parents and educators to fulfill their needs.

The Delivery of the Core Curriculum for Blind and Visually Impaired Students

For too many years, educators have behaved as though they were unaware of the unique and specialized needs of blind and visually impaired students. The outcome is a modern tragedy; too many products of our educational efforts live isolated, troubled lives. For too many years educators have known the content of the curricula that would equalize the education of blind and visually impaired learners by neutralizing the effects of visual impairments on incidental learning. And for too many years educators have found reasons not to implement the expanded core curriculum.

Once the profession of educators for visually impaired learners and parents of visually impaired students accept the necessity of the expanded core curriculum, how can they deliver the expanded core curriculum to visually impaired learners?

The additional learning experiences contained in the expanded core curriculum are not easy to implement. They will be difficult to complete in 12 years of education, especially for students who are high academic learners. They require time to teach, and the need for them does not diminish with age or competency. At this time, no single, simple method assures visually impaired students of accessing both traditional and expanded core curricula within the same length of time as their sighted peers. This remains a significant, but attainable challenge.

The professionally prepared teacher of visually impaired students must be responsible for assessment, instruction, and evaluation in unique and specialized curricular areas. This educator needs to teach the necessary skills and knowledge or to orchestrate their teaching by using other community resources.

The competencies in an expanded core curriculum require allocating educational time to teach these skills. Programming that appropriately addresses all of the educational needs of blind and visually impaired students must assume that most students will need sizable periods of time to master the competencies required in the expanded core curriculum. If the profession does not demand that this time be made available, it does a disservice to students with visual impairments and may disable them in their efforts to successfully make the transition from school to adulthood.

The expanded core curriculum must become the unifying issue among educators for visually impaired students. The profession must adopt it as the education that blind and visually impaired students need. Then the profession has the enormous task of carrying the curriculum message to parents, administrators, and the public at large. The mes­sage must transcend fiscal issues, conflicting philosophical and political positions, and the doubts and misgivings of educators and parents.

The spotlight must be on the individual child. The first step must be a thorough assessment of the child, covering every area of the expanded core curriculum. Using assessment results and invaluable information from parents, the child's IEP team must develop goals and objectives for that child, based on assessment. If assessment has truly covered every area of the expanded core curriculum, there probably will be goals and objectives for each area. The task of meeting, or orchestrating the meeting of, all goals and objectives will fall to the professional teacher for visually impaired children. Decisions must be made on placement, on priorities, and on frequency and duration of instruction. Care must be taken that the competencies contained in the expanded core curriculum receive equal attention with the academic competencies stressed in the existing curriculum.

A Call to Action for Implementation

The Advisory Council of the National Agenda calls all professionals and parents to action on this issue. Action requires three components:

Implementation means that our lives as professionals and parents will be dramati­cally changed; parents and professionals will become partners in preparing their children for a rich and fulfilling adult life. And, finally, implementation means that the blind and visually impaired students to whom we have committed our love, our hopes, and our talents and gifts for teaching will enjoy a full, exciting, and productive life.

[1]RE:view Rehabilitation and Education for Blindness and Visual Impairment.V. 28 Number 1 Spring 1996 pp. 25-32. Reprinted with Permission Of The Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation.Published By Heldref Publications, 1319 18th St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036-1802. Copyright 1996.

[2]The term including those with additional disabilities, which appeared in the title, has not been repeated but should be assumed under the definition of blind and visually impaired students.

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