Access to opportunity is the foundation for instructing, supporting, and providing services to individuals who are blind or who have low vision.

Because people with visual impairments cannot incidentally access the environment with ease, they require direct experiences with, and specific instruction about, their world. Individuals with visual impairment require instructional techniques that are unlike the strategies needed by other populations of learners, with or without disabilities. The professional educator’s role is to provide meaningful experiential, hands-on activities in natural, flexible learning environments that promote access to opportunities for maximum independent functioning and ultimate inclusion as adults in society.

The overall mission of the Program in Visual Impairments is to graduate individuals who are competent and confident professional educators who have a personal and professional commitment to improving the opportunities for individuals who are blind or who have low vision. As such, program graduates will have the necessary skills and knowledge to provide appropriate services to the diversity of individuals with visual impairments and their families in a variety of education and community settings.