The definition of vision impairment suffered in special education because early laws were based on an impairment level understanding. Another way to put this is that the professionals who defined the laws and designed the structure of early special education were either medical people themselves or were influenced by the medical community. This effectively denied services to a host of children with brain level vision anomalies, and gave rise to the notion that the population of children with vision problems in special education constituted a minority. If the system had been based on a disability or handicap model, the population of children in need would be correctly perceived as huge, and an adequate allocation of funds would have followed. Gaps in Special Education I taught in Special Education for more than twenty years.
Special education is over sixty years old.
Over my span of teaching, I became aware that technology had moved on, knowledge had exploded, but special education remained encased in a conceptual box that slowed or prohibited change. In short, there were huge gaps in the special education delivery network. I reacted to three of these gaps, defining them and providing solutions. The first gap I became aware of was the failure of special education to address navigational disabilities. Children with severe impairments, mostly brain damage of various degrees and over different brain regions had difficulty moving easily and accurately through space.