Critical Concerns in Blindness Book Series | Research Reports
Critical Concerns in Blindness Book Series
The Institute on Blindness has established a "Critical Concerns in Blindness" book series to provide in-depth knowledge to the field of education and rehabilitation of individuals who are blind or visually impaired. These writings are based on the knowledge and experiences of successful persons who are blind.
Series Editor: Edward Bell, PhD
Series Publisher: Information Age Publishing, Inc
Getting Ready for College Begins in Third Grade: Working Toward an Independent future for Your Blind/VI Child
Castellano, Carol. Getting Ready for College Begins in Third Grade: Working Toward an Independent Future for Your Blind/VI Child.
Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc, 2010.
We have so many hopes and dreams for our children. We want them to develop to their full potential. We want them to be able to do things for themslves and become contributing members of the household. We hope they will learn how to play and get along with others. We want them to learn well in school and eventually to do fulfilling work. We hope they will have a satisfying life complete with family, friends, and fun.
Should these dreams be any different for out blind/visually impaired children? Must we lower our standards, our hopes, out expectations, our dreams? Absolutely not!
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Independent Movement and Travel in Blind Children: A Promotion Model
Cutter, Joseph. Independent Movement and Travel in Blind Children: A Promotion Model. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc, 2007.
Unlike many books and articles on orientation and mobility (O&M) for blind children, this one is not about the effect of blindness on movement. Such an inquiry is self defeating from the start, as it often begins with misconceptions and deficit-thinking about blindness and the blind child's early motor development. Instead, this book is about the effect of movement on development and the importance of movement experiences for the development of independent movement and travel in blind children. It has a clear premise: blind children must become "active movers" if they are to become independent "travelers."
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The Blind Need Not Apply: A History of Overcoming Prejudice in the Orientation and Mobility Profession
Ferguson, Ronald. The Blind Need Not Apply: A History of Overcoming Prejudice in the Orientation and Mobility Profession. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc, 2007.
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Seeing Beyond Blindness
Kinash, S. Seeing Beyond Blindness. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc, 2006.
This book is intended for four intersecting groups of readers. If you are a philosopher, closet or sanctioned, then you cannot ponder the nature of being without due consideration for vision, and cannot contemplate the role of seeing in our lives without listening to the stories of those who are blind. The tales within this text are particularly contemporaneous because they are contextualized by the cyber-phenomena of online learning. This segues to the second group of readers, as the described empirical research was originally intended to bring greater depth and breadth of understanding to the field of educational technology, particularly as it intersects with disability studies. There is a paucity of published literature that has inquired into disabled online learners, and this research study responds to that call. Third, this book may be used as a textbook on approaches to interpretive empirical research. It is as close as one may come to a recipe, walking students through a specific example. Because it is situated in actual empirical research, the intention was that it avoid the trap of being prescriptive or formulaic. Finally, the text is intended for readers interested in the field of blindness. The text reviews some of the seminal and contemporary research on blindness, and then presents an elaborated example of what we can and should expect to emerge in the knowledge production industry, changing what it means to be blind.
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Making It Work: Educating the Blind/Visually Impaired Student in the
Regular School
Castellano, C. Making It Work: Educating the Blind/Visually Impaired Student in the Regular School. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc, 2005.
Making It Work is destined to be the definitive guide for years to come on how to make the regular school education a successful experience for blind/visually impaired children. With chapters flowing logically and full of detailed, useful information, it will be an essential handbook for school staff, specialized service providers, and parents of blind/visually impaired children. This is an exquisite, enlightened guide for the education of blind/visually impaired children in the new millennium.
~ Joe Cutter, Early Childhood O&M Specialist
Education and Rehabilitation for Empowerment
Vaughan, Edwin C, and James H Omvig. Education and Rehabilitation for Empowerment. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc, 2005.
In this book we are interested in patterns of education, rehabilitation service, socialization, and ideas about blindness that in large part produce the above-mentioned distinct patterns. We will examine the economic interests of professional groups and the patterns of domination and subordination, which are present in most rehabilitation relationships. Our central tenet is that the behavior of blind people is not a product of the physical condition of blindness or the amount of residual vision a blind person has. Rather, the behavior of blind people in our society is governed by socialization. Blindness is a social problem arising from erroneous, socially constructed negative beliefs about the capacities of blind people involuntarily assimilated from the broader society by the blind. People learn to live independently or they learn to be dependent. The reactions of parents, teachers, peers, the health professionals, rehabilitation counselors and the general public have defined the choices available to blind people. This is the case in every culture and society around the world. Differences result from different cultural values, levels of economic development, and historical traditions.
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The Blindness Revolution: Jernigan in His Own Words
Omvig, James H. The Blindness Revolution: Jernigan in His Own Words. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc, 2005.
This book recounts the dramatic story of the transformation of the Iowa Commission for the Blind from a verifiably ineffective service agency to perhaps the most outstanding and effective adult service program in the nation in the span of 10 short years. What happened in Iowa was revolutionary, and the character of work with the blind in America and around the world was altered forever-the alternative civil rights-based service model worked. Using Kenneth Jernigan's own writings of Board meeting minutes, reports, and letters, I present the details of the remarkable story from an activist's point of view.
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We Know Who We Are: A History of the Blind in Challenging Educational and Socially Constructed Policies
Ferguson, Ronald. We Know Who We Are: A History of the Blind in Challenging Educational and Socially Constructed Policies. A study in policy archaeology. San Francisco: Caddo Gap Press, 2001.
A goal in writing this book has been to write a history, from the perspective of the organized blind, of their struggle against discrimination as the result of educational and social policies created by professional sin the blindness field. Although there are a number of histories dealing with the education of the blind, these were primarily written by people who worked within the blindness system and/or were sympathetic to its interests. This book was an attempt to provide a different perspective in order to show the conflicts the organized blind encountered with the professional culture of the blindness system and their efforts to create educational policies for the blind instead of in conjunction with the blind (pp 196-197).
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Freedom for the Blind: The Secret is Empowerment
Omvig, James H. Freedom for the Blind: The Secret is Empowerment. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2002.
The author, James Omvig, brings together the best of rehabilitation practice with the wisdom and experience of countless blind people who, through their own lives, faced and overcame the social and economic barriers arising from myths and misunderstanding about blindness. His book speaks eloquently to the point that, the renaissance in rehabilitation of the blind is not the product of our technology nor of our science, but rather emerged out of the collective will of tens of thousands of blind people to live full, normal, productive lives.
~ Dr. Fredric K. Schroeder, Former Commissioner - Rehabilitation Services Administration - U.S. Department of Education, 2002, p.11
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Stressing the employment Outcome: A Manual Dedicated To The Concept That Blindness, In And Of Its Own, Does Not Prevent Employment
Newman, Robert Leslie. Stressing the employment Outcome: A Manual Dedicated To The Concept That Blindness, In And Of Its Own, Does Not Prevent Employment.
Louisiana Tech University: Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness 2014
This is a in-your-hand, big-picture, how-to-do-it document to help a new or experienced counselor to get his or her mind wrapped around a case-long, overall employment strategy. Think of this: it takes three people who know what they are doing to reach the end goal of a successfully employed blind person -- an employable blind person, a willing employer, and a skilled vocational counselor to bring them together.
And so the employment professional with the right employment strategy mindset can develop and orchestrate a plan to bring the consumer to a state of readiness for employment, can school that consumer to be a smart job seeker, and can also reach out into the business community to educate and support a willing employer. To help the counselor to develop this mindset, this document shows the what and where to apply a verbal and/or action strategy to promote an employment outcome, and the why and how to do it.