Impact of COVID-19 on services for students with visual impairment: Experiences and lessons from the field

Abstract

With schools under intense pressure to deliver high-quality instruction during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, education in the 2020–2021 school year was different than typical, especially for students with disabilities including those who are visually impaired (VI). Schools all over the world struggled to figure out the best ways to provide services for students and meet their needs, from fully online learning to hybrid education and in-person school. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the experiences of professionals who work with students with VI during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen educators of students with VI participated in this study. Participants were asked to share their experiences when providing services to students who are VI during the first 9 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings for this study identified four major themes as follows: (1) changes in delivery of services; (2) challenges in teaching and learning; (3) opportunities for teaching and learning; and (4) learnings to apply in the future. Recommendations for professionals working with students who are VI highlighting the importance of professional development training on technologies and maintaining strong connection with families will be discussed. Suggestions for personnel preparation programs and school districts on how to support pre-service and in-service educators of students with VI will also be addressed.

What was a gap is now a chasm: Remote schooling, the digital divide, and educational inequities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Finally, students who have related services on their IEPs (including various therapies) and students who are deaf/hard of hearing or blind/with visual impairments often require additional supports from service providers who may be itinerant or work part-time in the school system. In addition to the burden on the service providers to quickly shift their services to be delivered in a virtual format, students struggled to access these services due to inaccessible or non-existent technology (e.g., technology for teaching youth to read Braille) [ 29 ]. A lack of access to these supports may have likely hindered students’ ability to keep up with instruction, thus resulting in detrimental impacts to youths’ educational outcomes.…”

Psychological and social adaptation of students with visual impairment and blindness at Mu’tah University

“…During the Corona pandemic (COVID-19), Students with visual impairment and blindness have faced many challenges; among these challenges: Changes in teaching courses (Alrashdan & Almeqdad, 2022;Correa-Torres & Muthukumaran, 2022), The lack of appropriate electronic books for students with visual disabilities or blindness and the lack of educational and explanatory activities during distance learning (Alsedalani & Alslmi, 2021). not obtaining a lot of information in the courses due to the difficulty of using software such as Teams and Moodle, financial challenges related to the problem of providing modern technologies for distance learning, difficulty in giving computerized exams, weakness on the Internet and this affects distance learning (Alshyab, et al, 2020).…”