Visual Impairment Support Services: Who is on your VI Team?

expanded core curriculum mindset mindset for teachers orientation and mobility Jul 22, 2025

You’ve just reviewed your new class list, and you see the designation: a student with a visual impairment. For many dedicated educators, this moment can bring a mix of emotions, a desire to provide the best support, coupled with a wave of uncertainty. What does this mean for your classroom? What materials will they need? Who do you even call first?

Supporting a student with a visual impairment is a team sport. Surrounding that learner is a dedicated group of professionals—a visual impairment team—each with a specialized role designed to ensure the student has equitable access to their education and the world around them. Understanding who these individuals are and how they contribute is the first, most crucial step you can take.

This guide will demystify the roles of the key players you’ll encounter, breaking down the essential visual impairment support services into the medical, educational, and vocational teams that will become your partners in student success.

The Foundation: The Medical Team

Before we even step into the classroom, the journey begins with understanding the student’s specific visual impairment. This information comes from medical professionals who diagnose and treat eye conditions. While you won’t likely interact with them directly, their reports are the cornerstone of all educational planning.

First things first: Your most immediate task is to work with the student's family and your school administration to obtain a current medical eye report. This document is non-negotiable for qualifying for and planning services for students with visual impairment.

Here are the key medical players:

Ophthalmologist: This is a medical doctor (MD) who specializes in eye and vision care. They diagnose and treat eye diseases, perform eye surgery, and prescribe medications. The ophthalmologist’s report provides the official diagnosis (e.g., Retinopathy of Prematurity, Cortical Visual Impairment, Optic Nerve Hypoplasia), acuity measurements, and visual field information.
Optometrist: An optometrist (OD) is a healthcare professional who provides primary vision care, from sight testing and correction to diagnosing and managing certain eye conditions.
Low Vision Specialist: This is often an ophthalmologist or optometrist with advanced training in evaluating and managing vision loss that cannot be corrected with standard glasses or surgery. They are experts in maximizing a student’s functional vision, often recommending specific tools like magnifiers, monoculars, or specialized lighting.

Your Educational Allies: The Core of Your VI Support Services

This is the team you will work with hand-in-hand, your "compadres" in the day-to-day work of education. Establishing a clear, direct line of communication with these itinerant specialists is vital for a successful year.

1. The Teacher for Students with Visual Impairments (TVI or TSVI)

Who they are: The TVI is your lead partner and the case manager for the student's vision-specific educational needs. It is critical to understand that a TVI is a certified teacher, not a therapist. They have a bachelor's or master's degree in education with a specialization in teaching students with visual impairments.

What they do: The TVI’s role is expansive. They are responsible for:

Conducting Assessments: Performing the Functional Vision Evaluation (FVE) to determine how the student uses their vision in everyday settings and the Learning Media Assessment (LMA) to determine the most effective learning and literacy media (e.g., print, large print, braille, auditory).
Adapting Materials: Working with you to ensure all classroom materials, from worksheets and textbooks to PowerPoint presentations and lab experiments, are accessible.
Direct Instruction: Teaching skills from the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC), a set of nine disability-specific skills essential for visually impaired students, including assistive technology, career education, and social interaction skills.
Collaboration: Acting as the central point of contact, ensuring the general education teacher, the family, and the rest of the VI team are all on the same page.

Your Role: Your TVI may have a caseload of 30 or more students across multiple schools. You can be their greatest ally by providing lesson plans and materials in advance, allowing them adequate time for adaptation and preparation.

2. The Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist

Who they are: The orientation and mobility specialist is a certified professional who teaches individuals with a visual impairment how to navigate their environment safely, efficiently, and independently.

What they do: O&M is about two key concepts: Orientation (knowing where you are in space) and Mobility (the ability to move through that space). The O&M specialist’s instruction can include:

School Navigation: Learning routes to the cafeteria, library, restroom, and playground.
Cane Skills: Proper techniques for using a long white cane to detect obstacles and changes in terrain.
Community Travel: Crossing streets, using public transportation, and navigating grocery stores or malls.
Spatial Concepts: Understanding environmental layouts and developing mental maps.
Soliciting Assistance: Learning how to appropriately ask for help when needed.

The O&M specialist provides one of the most visible and empowering vision impairment services, directly contributing to a student’s confidence and independence.

3. The Assistive Technology (AT) Specialist

Who they are: In our increasingly digital world, the assistive technology specialist is indispensable. This expert focuses on the hardware and software that allows students with visual impairments to access digital information. Sometimes, the TVI is also a trained AT specialist.

What they do: The AT specialist evaluates the student’s needs and provides training on a range of tools, such as:

Screen Readers: Software (like JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver) that reads digital text aloud.
Magnification Software: Programs that enlarge text and images on a screen.
Braille Technology: Electronic braille notetakers and refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and tablets.
Device Accessibility: Teaching the student to use the built-in accessibility features on Chromebooks, iPads, and smartphones.

Their work ensures that a visually impaired student is not just a passive consumer of information but a productive, digitally literate citizen.

4. The Braillist

Who they are: A braillist (or braille transcriber) is a highly skilled professional who transcribes print documents into braille. While many TVIs can read and teach braille, producing large volumes of perfectly formatted braille is a specialized, full-time job.

What they do: The braillist is the student’s gateway to literacy. They are the ones who sit down and meticulously convert textbooks, quizzes, and reading materials into tactile form. This is a time-consuming process that requires immense precision, which is why providing materials to your VI team well in advance is so important.

Building the Future: Your Transition Team

As your student gets older (typically around age 14), the team expands to include professionals focused on post-secondary success. These visual impairment services are designed to prepare the student for life after high school.

1. The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Specialist

Who they are: The vocational rehabilitation specialist (sometimes called a VR counselor) is like a TVI for adults. They work for a state agency and help individuals with disabilities prepare for, obtain, and maintain employment.

What they do: The VR specialist will start working with your student to plan for their future. This includes:

Assessing skills and interests for potential career paths.
Providing guidance on college applications or vocational training programs.
Funding assistive technology, training, or other resources needed for employment.

2. The Job Coach

Who they are: A job coach provides direct, on-site support to a student in a work environment, whether it's a part-time job in high school or their first career role.

What they do: The job coach helps bridge the gap between knowing how to do a job and successfully performing it. They might help the student learn specific tasks, navigate the workplace, understand workplace social etiquette, and advocate for necessary accommodations.

The Heart of the Team: The Student and Their Family

Never forget the two most important members of the visual impairment team: the student and their family. The student is the ultimate expert on their own experiences, and their family holds a wealth of knowledge about their history, strengths, and challenges. Involve them in every decision. Empower the student to advocate for their own needs. Their voice is the one that matters most.

Your First Steps to Success

Feeling more prepared? The sheer number of professionals can seem like a lot, but they exist to form a safety net of support. Your role as the classroom teacher is vital, and you are the key to unlocking your student's daily access to learning.

So, where do you start?

Contact Your Administrator: Reach out to your principal or special education director. Inform them about your new student and ask for the contact information for the assigned Teacher for Students with Visual Impairments (TVI).
Connect with the Family: Introduce yourself and begin the process of getting that crucial medical eye report.
Collaborate with the TVI: Once connected, the TVI will guide you through the next steps, from initial assessments to classroom accommodations.

You have an incredible opportunity to be a transformative force in this student's life. By understanding and collaborating with the expert visual impairment team around you, you can confidently create an inclusive, accessible, and empowering learning environment for all.

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