Book Review: “Religious Beliefs of Parents of Children with Visual Impairments

"Religious Beliefs of Parents of Children with Visual Impairments," by Jane N. Erin, Dale Rudin, and Michael Njoroge, published in the April 1991 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 85, Number 4, pp. 157-162. About 15 years ago, I read a thought-provoking article in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), entitled "Religious Beliefs of Parents of Children with Visual Impairments," by Jane N. Erin, Dale Rudin, and Michael Njoroge. At the time, I had just begun my master's studies at the University of Arizona and formal training to become a teacher of students with visual impairment, a milestone that also marked my introduction to JVIB. Prior to graduate school, I had worked in the field of visual impairment for over five years at two completely dissimilar and unequal residential schools. I was a paraeducator for the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI), in Austin, and a Peace Corps volunteer for the Organization Alaouite pour la Protection des Aveugles (OAPAM) [Alawite Organization for the Protection of the Blind], in Fez, Morocco. While TSBVI offered students a swimming pool, bowling alley, and specialized running track, the children at OAPAM were surprisingly skilled at playing soccer using a balled-up piece of braille paper. In addition to a lack of recreational facilities, unfortunately, the goodhearted teachers at OAPAM also received very little training to teach students with visual impairments. Even though religious affiliation varies between the United States and Morocco, the influence of religion on beliefs about disability is universal. When parents first learn that their child is visually impaired, their expectations for the child's future often feel crushed. The authors of the article I chose to highlight in this essay aptly note that the diagnosis of visual impairment can destabilize parents' religious beliefs. In a survey of 161 parents of children with visual impairments, immediately after their children's births, 20% felt that the presence of visual impairment was punishment from God. This percentage decreased to 5% as time passed. The authors suggested that parents might undergo a temporary shift in religious beliefs, which is a natural early stage of the grieving process that individuals often experience when confronted with visual impairments. The authors made clear that the voices of parents are crucial ones to listen to, and they encouraged practitioners to engage in dialogue with parents about their needs: The professional who questions or criticizes a family's belief system, even when those beliefs seem to contradict an educational goal, risks losing the trust and cooperation of family members (p. 161). Early in my career as a paraeducator at TSBVI, I had an experience that illustrates the importance of listening to families and compromise as described in the article. I worked with a young, energetic African American boy with deafblindness. His grandmother was his legal guardian, and she communicated to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team that she wanted her grandson to learn to be able to sit quietly for church service. Rather than dismiss her concern, the educational team developed strategizes to gradually increase his time in quiet, seated engagement with a few favorite toys. This skill, of course, helped him with other tasks that involved sitting calmly, in particular during long bus rides to and from school. This article also resonated with me, because I was introduced to it soon after my Peace Corps assignment. A major responsibility of a Peace Corps volunteer is to build cross-cultural understanding and share the knowledge and experience gained from the host country service. …