The field of professionals who work with students who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf-blind is facing a huge shortage. The problem to be addressed is the decreasing number of experienced teachers for the blind and visually impaired. The number of teachers for the visually impaired has school districts struggling to find teachers to work with…

I was a person who identified as culturally Deaf but at the same time had progressive vision loss. I embraced my Deaf identity, but I did not embrace any inkling of identifying myself as a DeafBlind person considering the stigma associated with it. Due to that stigma, the journey of identifying as a DeafBlind person is difficult mentally,…

This series of three studies identified an experimental research gap in the field of deafblindness. Study 1, a descriptive study, identified types of articles published, and research designs used, in 37 peer-reviewed special education journals. A total of 4,854 articles published from 2012 through 2017 were examined to determine types of articles…

This qualitative phenomenological action research study examined the experiences of families raising a child who is deafblind and identified impact on teacher perception when family experiences were shared as a short digital movie. Five families who all had a child on the Kentucky DeafBlind Project census and their child's lead teacher…

Although active parent involvement is mandated as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), parents continue to report dissatisfaction with IEP meetings. Despite increases in parent participation policy since the adoption of IDEA, the parent-professional partnership originally envisioned by lawmakers is arguably not…

The field of deafblind (DB) education has a long and rich history which includes a lack of qualified personnel to meet the needs of the population of learners. In addition, the literature base is small, lacking evidence for effective practices or methods of assessing and tracking growth with these learners. The ability to adequately track student…

There is a lack of knowledge in the area of training needs for Deaf/Blind vocational rehabilitation and/or independent living service providers in Florida. This quantitative study utilized self-report surveys of Deaf/Blind providers in Florida to determine what needs to be done related to professional development. The researcher attempted to…

DeafBlind university students are an understudied group of resilient and adaptable adults who experience significant challenges in their everyday life. Being DeafBlind has an impact on accessing information, communication, academic opportunities, social networks, positive self-identity, independence, connecting with others, and understanding one's…

The effects of deafblindness are much greater than simply combining the effects of the individual's vision loss with the effects of their hearing loss, because these senses strongly support one another (Silberman, Bruce, & Nelson, 2004). Even though most individuals have some residual vision and hearing, deafblindness limits access to the…

Although collaboration is a well-known and encouraged practice in teachers' work to support children with special needs, it is often conceptualized in either a vague or an overly idealized manner. Additionally, there is a dearth of research on how teachers work together and how this collaboration affects critical outcomes related to their working…

This study explored teaching strategies for communication and literacy development in deaf-blind students by determining if there was a significant relationship between the instructional strategies practiced by Annie Sullivan in the early 1900s and the contemporary instructional strategies recommended by The National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness…

This study investigated the relationship between families' perceptions of supports and services and family quality of life (FQOL) for families of children with deafblindness, and the potential of satisfaction with family-professional partnerships and child age as moderators of this relationship. The study was guided by the Unified Theory of Family…