Special education professionals are hoping incentives and partnerships with universities will help to fill a major staffing shortage of teachers for the visually impaired.
Northern Illinois University is one of the schools working closely with the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Janesville.
Molly Pasley, assistant professor of special education at the university, said she sees the center as an ideal clinical placement opportunity for students in their vision studies program. She added there is a critical lack of vision professionals nationwide, mostly due to lack of awareness.
"The shortage is so great that we're always going to have a need for teachers of the visually impaired," Pasley pointed out. "Not because the population is exploding, it's just that we have a PR problem: No one knows we exist."
Pasley noted the shortage extends beyond children's services to adult resources and age-related blindness. She added in rural areas, access is extremely limited. To help recruit more professionals to the field, she explains Northern Illinois University essentially pays for students to go through their vision studies program with grants which can provide full tuition, fees, health insurance, textbooks and living stipends.
Pasley, who originally intended to work with students who are deaf and hard of hearing, said people either stumble into the field like she did or have family connections to vision loss. One of things she loves most about the work is the diversity each day brings.
"You might work with someone in pre-K or a 3-year-old, and then the next hour, you might be working with a high schooler who's preparing to go to college next year," Pasley explained. "There's a lot of variability in terms of who we teach and what we teach."
Dan Wenzel, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, said the goal is to continue supporting educators and find ways to get people interested in joining the field. He hopes strong partnerships with universities and mentorship programs exposing students to different teaching approaches will help to increase retention.
"Whether it's with us or with another school district or another entity in the state, filling vacancies is important and it's something that we want to support," Wenzel stressed. "We want people to be able to find their passion and serve this great group of students and make a difference."
The center, which is a part of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, works with local education agencies and other providers to serve blind and visually impaired professionals, families and students across the state through various programs, both on campus and in the community.
