The Experiences of Parents of Students with Visual Impairments Who Are Professionals in the Field of Visual Impairment.

Abstract: This survey examined the experiences of parents of individuals with visual impairments who acquired professional credentials in the field of visual impairment. The participants reported on such topics as the advantages and disadvantages of being a parent-professional, the types of support they seek, and advice to others who are balancing both roles. ********** The proverb "Experience is the best teacher" has been paraphrased across history and throughout cultures. If this belief is valid, then professions related to visual impairment have an important pool of potential recruits in the family members of children and adults with visual impairments who receive educational and rehabilitative services. In addition, parents who are professionals can provide unique perspectives for new professionals in the field who are working to understand the common ground between families and teachers in the learning process. A number of notable leaders in the field, including Natalie Barraga, Ed.D., professor emerita at the University of Texas at Austin, and Susan LaVenture, executive director of the National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments, entered their professions because they had visually impaired children. In her autobiography, Dr. Barraga (2007, p. 52) wrote about her experience trying to gather information from Dr. Lawrence, an ophthalmologist, about her infant daughter's visual impairment: When Dr. Lawrence said that she would always be blind, I argued with him, and said that she could see light, and would reach out to pick up the soap when I bathed her.... Then he explained that he meant she would be "legally blind," which meant 20/ 200 measured acuity. That was the beginning of my concern of calling children legally blind when they had some useful vision, a challenge that has been the driving force in all my research and development of theories and materials for the past 55 years. Barraga did not intend to become a professional in the field of visual impairment, but having a daughter with a visual impairment led her to a career as an educator of students with visual impairments. Although there is little empirical literature on the specific skills acquired by parents of visually impaired students, extensive anecdotal descriptions and qualitative studies have acknowledged the parenting experience as a source of understanding visually impaired children. Examples include McHugh and Lieberman (2003), who used questionnaires and interviews to gather information from parents about the strategies they used to decrease stereotypical behaviors in children; Botting (2003), who discussed the interventions that were effective in discouraging her son's eye pressing; and Bugbee (2006), who described her increased understanding of the ways in which her daughter learned through active involvement with materials. For many parents, the logical extension of their personal learning is to become professionals who can apply the same learning with others who are visually impaired. Parents may first become interested in professional roles in the field because they have become aware of the field through their parental roles. They undertake the intensive preparation needed to be professionals because they want to improve services for their own children who are visually impaired. They then broaden their interests from parents to teachers and become highly motivated to improve the quality of services for all children who are visually impaired. The importance of personal experience as a motivator for becoming a professional in visual impairment was evidenced in Hong, Rosenblum, Petrovay, and Erin's (2000) study, which found that 9.5% of the 428 participants became aware of the field of visual impairment through a family member with a visual impairment and 17.5% entered the profession because of a family member with a visual impairment. …