This article reports on a descriptive study of standards and criteria for competence in braille literacy within teacher preparation programs and the specific role played in the achievement of proficiency in braille literacy by university teacher preparation programs in blindness and visual impairment. It contains a summary of the need for such research, historical background, research methods, and a discussion of standards and implications for personnel preparation.

This study examined the preparation in and use of the Nemeth braille code by 135 teachers of students with visual impairments. Almost all the teachers had taken at least one course in the Nemeth code as part of their university preparation. In their current jobs, they prepared a variety of materials, primarily basic operations, word problems, tactile graphics, and fractions.

Introduction This article, based on a study of 196 teachers of students with visual impairments, reports on the experiences with and opinions related to their decisions about instructing their students who are blind or have low vision in the abacus. Methods The participants completed an online survey on how they decide which students should be taught abacus computation skills and which skills they teach. Data were also gathered on those who reported that they did not teach computation with the abacus. Results The participants resided in the United States and Canada and had various numbers of years of teaching experience. More than two-thirds of those who reported that they taught abacus computation skills indicated that they began instruction when their students were between preschool and the second grade. When students were provided with instruction in abacus computation, the most frequently taught skills were the operations of addition and subtraction. More than two-thirds of the participants reported that students were allowed to use an abacus on high-stakes tests in their state or province. Discussion Teachers of students with visual impairments are teaching students to compute using the Cranmer abacus. A small number of participants reported they did not teach computation with an abacus to their students because of their own lack of knowledge. Implications for practitioners The abacus has a role in the toolbox of today's students with visual impairments. Among other implications for educational practice, further studies are needed to examine more closely how teachers of students with visual impairments are instructing their students in computation with an abacus. Topics to examine include the frequency of instruction, the age at which instruction begins, how instruction is provided to children with multiple disabilities, whether instruction is provided in the general education classroom or via pullouts, the role of math teachers and paraeducators in instruction, and how the abacus could be used collaboratively with technology.

During my graduate school years, I was fortunate to take a class with a professor who started each class session by describing a rhetorical problem and requiring us to form small groups and devise six creative ways in which to resolve the challenge. This early work in solving problems has served me well, since those of us who work in the area of teacher preparation are not strangers to challenges. A crisis exists in the United States because of the shortage of competent teachers of students who are blind or visually impaired. One solution to the lack of access to teacher-training programs has been online education.After gaining much experience as a classroom teacher for several teacher-preparation programs throughout the country, I became an online braille instructor in 2001. I had never taken an online course prior to teaching one, and I quickly learned that online environments require the acquisition of a different set of teaching skills, as well as acceptance of a unique teaching environment.