Hello fellow parents of glorious children who happen to have CVI,

Let’s talk a little advocacy with a dash of history, shall we?

When CVI Momifesto began in September, Dr. Sandra Newcomb, a Perkins-Roman Endorsed Consultant and Technical Assistance and Education Specialist at Connections Beyond Sight and Sound at the University of Maryland, left the following comment:

“Historically, it has always been parents that brought about change.  Parents were behind IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children) behind all the change in service delivery for autism, and the list goes on….

Not that you as parents need one more responsibility, but that is where the power is in special education.

Think about it.

In the not too distant past, children with special needs were not educated in schools.  They were not educated, period.  Parents were encouraged to “put away” their children and to continue with their lives.  “Throw away” is more like it if you look at the soul crushing history of institutions in America.

Parents went against the advice of medical experts and brought their children home.  Parents came together and began programs to teach their children.  Parents approached their legislators demanding that their children had the same right to a free and appropriate education as any other child.

We are the power that made special education happen. 

The fact that we have an IDEA to refer to and resources to look for (even if they are hard to find) is because of the parents who came before us.

Here’s what we, as parents of children with vision loss, need to understand as we blaze our trail.

Children with vision loss are considered a “low incidence” population. 

If you have had any experience trying to get a teacher with expertise in CVI in a public school district, you have learned that it is a challenge to get attention (and resources, funding, staffing…) for your child with this “low incidence” diagnosis.  You may find yourself in an IEP meeting or sitting across from a school administrator and hear those words “low incidence.”  Then, you may find yourself walking out of the meeting without getting anything you requested because “low incidence.”

Can I just say how much I dislike the term “low incidence”?

Some school systems and state legislatures have a tendency to forget that these populations of children need resources and funding too.

Here are a couple of thoughts I have about this.

#1.  There is no comprehensive, national system of data collection keeping track of children with CVI.  Some states have “soft” systems like a registry of children with certain medical diagnoses, but, doctors and hospitals are not required to use it.  Also, many state registries do not list Cortical Visual Impairment (or other pediatric visual impairments).

How can you keep track of a diagnosis if it is not even a box you can check off?

To school systems and state and federal funding streams, CVI is a low incidence population within a low incidence population.  Read: lowest possible priority.

But, if no one is counting, no one really knows the true number of children with Cortical Visual Impairment.  Often, children with CVI get put in a category called “multiple disabilities” and the vision loss goes unrecorded.

So, “low incidence,” my Aunt Fanny.  If you aren’t counting, then I call foul.

Remember, it is common knowledge that CVI is the #1 pediatric visual impairment in developed countries.

#2.   If children with vision loss are a low incidence population, then, to be heard, we, the parents, have to be loud, focused, and repetitive.  (Jessica M. said in her Moms on Monday post that she had become “a broken record.”  That’s what I feel like too.)

We need to start talking, often and loudly to certain groups of professionals.

We need to talk to teacher training programs to tell them we need more teachers who have been trained to work with children with CVI.

We need to talk to ophthalmologists to get CVI identified early and accurately.

We need to talk to legislators to change existing laws to require more specialized training (The Cogswell Macy Act needs your support!.)

We live in a world of constant distractions.  It is hard to get people galvanized around a single issue.

As you read this sentence, you have received 10 new posts on Facebook, 3 tweets, 15 emails, a few texts, your dog is pacing by the door in need of a walk, your child needs a new diaper, and your boss wants that report yesterday.  Am I wrong?

Every waking minute it seems as though we are bombarded with a parade of worthy causes and the resulting impulse to respond to them.

How can we start highlighting our worthy cause in today’s frantic world of modern media?

Here is something old school I’m doing every chance I get because something has GOT to give.

Talk to future teachers

From my experience, folks do not become special educators and/or teachers of the visually impaired to get rich quick.  They have a genuine desire to improve the lives of very vulnerable children.  They work hard.  There are not enough of them.  They may not have access to enough resources to do what they want to do in their classroom.

They care.

Wherever I live, I reach out to the special education department of the local university. In Bloomington, Indiana, I spoke to special education students in Dr. Melissa Keller’s class at Indiana University.  In Maryland, I spoke to students in Dr. Sandra Newcomb’s class.

Most recently, in Virginia, I reached out to Dr. Kim Avila, the head of the Visual Impairment Consortium, at George Mason University.  She has been kind enough to allow me to speak to her class of future teachers of the visually impaired for 2 years in a row.

On Monday, I joined a conference call to speak to this year’s group of future TVI on the first day of their unit on Cortical Visual Impairment.  The course is offered as online learning.  One of the students lives in Alaska and was compelled to become a TVI because of the number of children she is seeing in Early Intervention with CVI.  (She is my new hero.)

I told them about E, where she began and where she is now.  I told them about how challenging it has been to find teachers who had heard about Cortical Visual Impairment or what to do to help children with CVI learn.  I told them that teacher preparation programs for TVI do not typically include Cortical Visual Impairment in their curricula.

Then, I mentioned the Perkins-Roman CVI Range Endorsement.   I asked them to consider becoming endorsed because they will have children with CVI on their caseload and they need to be prepared for them.

Because, why not?  How is anything going to change if we do not start asking for things to change?  We have to start a conversation to raise awareness.  If these future teachers do not know that they will experience children with CVI in their classrooms, then they will not know to look for specialized training.

To seal the deal, I offered a homemade pie to anyone in the class who becomes CVI endorsed.

Even to the lovely lady in Alaska.

I would gladly freeze dry and Fed Ex a pie to Alaska, to the North Pole even, if it would increase the number of teachers who can help children with CVI have access to their environment.  So far, no one has taken me up on it.

But, the offer stands.

I do not kid about pie.

Future educators need to hear your experiences.  And, their professors would love to have your input in their classes.  You could research special education classes or TVI preparation classes at a university near you.  You could write a professor and say, “Hey, I’m the parent of a child with Cortical Visual Impairment.  I would love the chance to share our experiences with your class.”

If you do, tell CVI Momifesto how it went!

There might be a pie in it for you.