As an Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist, I’ve spent my career helping students with visual impairments navigate the world confidently. But one of the most profound challenges they face isn’t just navigating hallways or streets, it's navigating the vast, unseen world of information that sighted individuals absorb every second.
Here’s a statistic that stops most educators in their tracks:
Up to 90% of what we know, we learn visually and incidentally.
This isn't just a number. It's the key to understanding how vision affects learning at its most fundamental level. It explains why a student with a visual impairment may have perfect hearing and a brilliant mind, yet struggle with concepts their peers grasp effortlessly. This discrepancy isn't a failure of intellect; it’s the result of a profound sensory loss that creates something we in the field call the "concept gap."
In this article, we’ll break down exactly what this means, how it impacts a student’s day-to-day education, and what we, as a team of educators, can do to bridge this gap.
The Invisible Foundation: What is Incidental Learning?
Before we can understand the problem, we must first define what is incidental learning. Simply put, it’s everything you learn without anyone explicitly teaching it to you.
Think about the last time you walked into a party. Within seconds, you absorbed a flood of visual data. You saw what people were wearing, black-tie attire or casual jeans. You noticed the environment, a formal ballroom or a backyard with a bluegrass band. You observed how people were interacting, standing in quiet, polite groups or laughing loudly and grabbing a beer.
Instantly, without a single word of instruction, you knew the social rules. You knew whether to stand up straighter or relax, whether your outfit fit in, and how to behave. This is incidental learning in action. It’s the invisible curriculum of life, taught through observation.
For students with a visual impairment, this primary channel for learning is partially or completely blocked. Their access to this constant stream of environmental and social information is limited. This doesn't just apply to social events; it applies to every moment of every day, especially in the classroom.
The Concept Gap: How Missing Moments Create Learning Hurdles
When a child misses out on thousands of these incidental learning moments, it creates a concept gap. Concepts that are foundational for sighted children, like "above," "behind," "transparent," or even the function of everyday objects, may remain abstract and confusing.
Let's use a simple example: making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
A sighted child has likely watched a parent make that same sandwich hundreds of times by the age of five. They have incidentally learned:
Object Permanence & Location: Bread lives in the pantry, jelly is in the fridge, and knives are in a specific drawer.
Sequence & Process: You get the bread first, then the spreads, then you combine them.
Properties of Matter: Jelly is gelatinous and cold; peanut butter is thick and sticky.
Tool Use: A knife is used for spreading, not just cutting.
By the time this child enters school, their concept development around this one task is rich and multi-layered. When a teacher reads a story about a picnic, the child has a deep well of experience to draw from.
Now, consider a VI student who has never seen this process. They may have eaten the sandwich, but they have missed all the crucial learning that surrounds its creation. The words "pantry," "drawer," and "spread" are just vocabulary without a concrete anchor. This is the concept gap in action. It's the cumulative effect of missing the how and why behind the what.
The School Day Breakdown: A Story of 378 Missed Minutes
The impact of the concept gap becomes staggering when you apply it to the structure of a school day. In Texas, for example, students are required to be in school for 75,600 minutes a year. That breaks down to a minimum of 420 minutes per day.
If we apply our 90% rule, a staggering 378 of those minutes are filled with potential incidental learning.
During that time, a sighted student is absorbing information constantly:
They see the teacher’s non-verbal cues and gestures.
They observe how a classmate is organizing their desk.
They glance at a poster on the wall and absorb its content.
They see the difference between a classmate’s ham sandwich and their macaroni and cheese.
For a student with a visual impairment, unless the curriculum is specifically adapted, those 378 minutes can become a void. This is where educational adaptations and the support of a skilled team become non-negotiable. Without them, we are asking a student to succeed academically while denying them access to 90% of the learning environment. This is why special education for visually impaired students is so critical, it’s not about simplifying content but about building access to it.
The Solution: The Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC)
So, how to teach students with visual impairments effectively? The answer lies in being intentional. We cannot leave their conceptual understanding to chance. The primary tool we use to address this is the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC).
The ECC is a set of nine specific skill areas designed to systematically teach the skills that sighted children learn incidentally. It is the framework for filling the concept gap. While the standard academic curriculum covers subjects like math and science, the ECC covers the “rest of life” curriculum. These areas include:
Orientation and Mobility (O&M): Teaching students to travel safely and efficiently. As an O&M Specialist, this is my area of expertise.
Social Interaction Skills: Explicitly teaching non-verbal cues, turn-taking in conversation, and understanding social contexts.
Assistive Technology: Training in tools like screen readers, magnifiers, and braille devices.
Independent Living Skills: Personal care, cooking, and home management.
Recreation and Leisure: Exploring hobbies and activities for enjoyment.
Career Education: Preparing for the world of work.
Compensatory Skills: Accessing information through braille, large print, or auditory means.
Self-Determination: Developing advocacy skills and making informed choices.
Sensory Efficiency: Learning to use one's remaining vision, hearing, and other senses to the fullest.
The ECC is not an “extra”; it is the core of a high-quality visual education. It is the set of accommodations for visually impaired students that transforms their educational experience from passive listening to active participation.
Putting It Into Practice: The Role of the Entire Educational Team
Bridging the 90% learning gap is a team effort. It relies on the collaboration and dedication of the general education teacher, the Teacher of Visually Impaired (TVI), the paraprofessional or paraeducator, and the O&M Specialist.
Success happens in the “teeny, tiny moments” of the day:
It’s the paraprofessional who, instead of simply guiding a student down the hall, allows them the time to use their cane and build their own mental map.
It’s the science teacher who provides a 3D model of a cell instead of just describing a diagram.
It’s the math teacher who narrates what they are writing on the board, ensuring the auditory channel is as rich as the visual one.
Here are a few tips for teachers of visually impaired students and their support staff:
Always Be Verbal: Describe what you are doing, what’s happening in the room, and what others are doing. Your words create the visual scene.
Provide Hands-On Experiences: Don’t just talk about a pinecone, let the student hold one. Real objects are the building blocks of concept development.
Pre-Teach Concepts: Before reading a chapter on ancient Egypt, introduce a 3D model of a pyramid. Build the concept before you introduce the vocabulary.
Collaborate with Your TVI and O&M Specialist: These professionals are your greatest special education resources. They can provide specific strategies, materials, and visual impairment services tailored to your student’s unique needs.
It’s About Access, Not Ability
The challenges faced by students with visual impairments are not rooted in their ability to learn but in their access to information. The 90% learning gap is a formidable obstacle, but it is one we can systematically and successfully bridge.
By understanding the profound role of incidental learning, by actively working to fill the concept gap, and by championing the Expanded Core Curriculum, we can transform the classroom from a place of potential frustration into a world of opportunity. It requires intention, collaboration, and the integrity to ensure that every student, regardless of their level of vision, has access to 100% of their education.
If you’re ready to take the next step in becoming an even more impactful educator for your students, I invite you to join us. It’s completely free, because access to quality support should be as universal as the access we fight for our students.
topics covered: visual impairment, how vision affects learning, Expanded Core Curriculum, incidental learning, teacher of visually impaired, special education, concept gap, concept development, sensory loss, O&M specialist, paraprofessional, visual impairment in the classroom, teaching visually impaired students, how to teach students with visual impairments, social skills for visually impaired students, teaching non-verbal cues, tips for teachers of visually impaired, visual education, special education resources
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