Amy Parker and Leanne Cook, of TRI and the National Center on Deaf-Blindness, along with Carolyn Monaco of George Brown College, presented at the 2016 World Blind Union/International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (WBU/ICEVI) General Assembly, on August 22, 2016 as part of the ICEVI Day program.

Education for Children with Visual Impairments and Additional/Multiple Disabilities or Deafblindness.

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Education asked that the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) to take on the responsibility of developing high quality, accessible materials to support the practice of intervention for students who are deaf-blind.

Using a participatory approach, which included families, professionals, interveners, and people who are deaf-blind, NCDB has been working with community members to develop and field test a multi-media curriculum to support awareness of intervention. As these multi-media materials have become available (26 different modules), more international partners are using the information to provide training and awareness of intervention.

Through our partner at George Brown College in Canada, the community conversation has expanded to include dialogues about what the practice of intervention means across the globe. Participants at this interactive demonstration learned about the accessible design and the content of the Open Hands, Open Access (OHOA) modules, and about how to register for free to use the materials with groups of learners.

Participants also engaged in dialogue about the international movement around the practice of intervention for all individuals who are deaf-blind, and explored how open access educational resources that are designed with community members can help achieve the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Click here for more information about the National Center on Deaf-Blindness.

The 2016 World Blind Union (WBU) / International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) General Assembly took place August 18 to 25, 2016, in Orlando, Florida, USA, and was sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind.

WBU/ICEVI 2016 aims to improve the quality of life of those who are blind and low-vision by providing a common platform on which advocates, innovators, consumers, and service providers can expand both intra-regional and international networks, share information, and learn about new techniques and service models. WBU/ICEVI 2016 brought together participants from around the world, making this an important venue for collaborating and networking around key blindness issues.