A Sense of Texas

This month we share a fact-finding interview held by the TSBVI IR department discussing the our experiences over the summer running two of the school's flagship vocational rehab programs: SWEAT and WALIC. Our instructors Carlotta Binns and Laurel Taylor give us some background on these programs, the challenges remote instruction has presented them, and how they worked to overcome them going into t...

It's often hard to track how a toddler is developing but if you suspect there is a problem getting them help early can vastly improve outcomes. Guest host Kate Borg, TSBVI Outreach Director, joins the podcast this week with TSBVI Outreach Consultants Kathi Garza, Deanna Peterson, and Mary Shore to discuss ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and how it's helping toddlers with visual impairments achi...

Guide dogs are one of the best- and most widely known- resources for people who are blind or visually impaired to achieve independence in transportation and mobility, but they are often misunderstood. The amount of work that goes into getting a dog ready for service and the skills needed by the prospective user of the service are enormous. Jake Koch has expansive knowledge of these service animals...

One of the most challenging and fun parts of teaching students in a residential school is extracurricular activities. These activities are essential to helping our students gain important social skills and to help fill the time on campus they aren't spending in the classroom. TSBVI Residential Instructor Dan Butler joins us to talk about The Semi-Modulars, a student music group born from his idea...

This episode is getting uploaded a little later than usual so that we could ensure the accuracy of the information inside.  As of the morning of August 15, 2020, these are up-to-date.  But given the shifting nature of information, we will strive to keep this updated if anything changes. Emily, Sally Freeman, and Daniel Wheeler speak about the current plans to reopen the school and what safety prot...

At the very least, Spring 2020 saw school systems scrambling to maintain their educational mandate for their students. Few experienced the challenges of distance learning more than those who teach O&M, the most physically contacted part of education for those who are blind or visually impaired. We are fortunate to have specialists like Chris Tabb, formerly of TSBVI and currently of Maryland School...

Barbara Miles has been a leader in the field of DeafBlind education for as long as we can remember. Before her recent retirement she hosted a workshop at TSBVI and was kind enough to sit down with our own Matt Schultz and Chris Montgomery to talk about communication and building relationships with our students and what she hopes to see in the field of DeafBlind education going forward. 

Between given names, nicknames, and any number of adjectives used to describe yourself, language will always be an important part of how people identify themselves. In this episode we bring in our resident linguist Doug Bigham to discuss some context of person first versus identity first language and how it has been used in marginalized communities. We will also share perspectives from past interv...

This is the recording of our first live episode on June 5th. Assistive Technology Guru Bruce McClanahan joined Emily for a discussion on the past, present, and future of assistive technology and to trade insights from their years in the field. If you'd like more information or access to Bruce's copious resources, you can find that here.

This is not an episode. It's a teaser for our first LIVE episode this Friday, June 5th at 1PM eastern time.  Emily will sit down (virtually) with assistive technology expert and legend Bruce McClanahan for a discussion on all things assistive and remote tech. We hope you'll be in the audience and will contribute your own questions and conversation during the episode.  There's more info in the teas...

The impact of becoming blind as an adult isn't often on the minds of educators working mostly with children who are blind or visually impaired. Helping adults learn the skills needed to live and work with their disability is an important part of educating all individuals with vision loss. Neva Fairchild, National Aging and Vision Loss specialist with American Foundation for the Blind, joins the po...

In March, Chrissy and Cyral told us about the origins and operations of the Texas Mentor Programs with special attention on the experience of the mentee.  Now they return to focus on the experience of the mentors and speak about their work helping other states set up programs for their own teachers.  Afterwards, one of the alumnus of the program Pam Parker, Outreach Director for the Washington Sta...

The Covid-19 pandemic caught many systems and individuals by surprise, causing many to scramble for solutions to daily-changing circumstances. As one state’s school districts after another closed schools and delayed student return, many teaching professionals found themselves working fast and improvising in order to keep lessons making it to their students.  These challenges are especially acute f...

Greg Stilson joins the podcast to discuss his journey as a blind programmer in the private sector and how APH is positioning themselves as a global innovator in the field of assistive technology. 

Sometimes a new TVI or COMS (or one in training) find themselves in an area with a small support system.  In a state the size of Texas, this can happen more often than not as many school districts are far-flung and in isolated areas.  Cyral and Chrissy join Emily to discuss the programs TSBVI Outreach instituted decades ago to address this issue and how they've kept it going and the improvements t...

TSBVI's own Kathi Garza joins the podcast to tell us how NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation) provides opportunities for individuals with albinism to fellowship with one another and create an empowering environment for parents of children with albinism to learn more about the condition and how they can help their child lead rewarding lives. To provide a parents perspectiv...

When a child resists being taught, what is the problem?  Is it simply behavioral?  Is is a failure of teaching skill?  Emily speaks with TSBVI Outreach Consultant Scott Baltisberger about his recent article in TX SenseAbilities (TSBVI's newsletter) regarding some recent new understanding about what's necessary to create the right environment for learning to take place.  It's both new and remarkabl...

While the United States and Canada are often viewed as very similar there are some distinct and interesting differences between how the two countries offer services to people who are blind and visually impaired. #LearnedGentleman Adam Wilton from the Provincial Resource Center for the Visually Impaired (PRCVI) in Vancouver, British Columbia joins us to discuss how services in Canada differ from th...

Join us on our first over-the-phone guest interview as Sergio Oliva, Associate Vice President of The Braille Institute's National and Youth Programs, joins Emily for a discussion of the programs the Institute promotes to aid blind students and digs into the heart-warming reasons and results of the annual Braille Challenge.  Emily is then joined by a resident expert TSBVI student to give a kid-leve...

As we all know there are many obstacles standing in the way of employment for people who are blind and visually impaired. Jim Meehan, President and CEO of the Austin Lighthouse, is here to tell us how the Austin Lighthouse is breaking down some of those barriers and providing employment opportunities as well as a variety of other services for the visually impaired community in the Austin area. TSB...

Evan Hearn, a University of Texas at Austin journalism student, drives by the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and gets curious. It eventually leads to him creating his own podcast episode- spotlighting two of TSBVI's multi-talented students and the school's music education programs- which serves as the main course for our pre-holidays entry. We also invited Evan into the studio to...

AER Executive Director Janie Blome joins host Emily Coleman to discuss the importance of professional organizations and the future of AER. One of AER's offerings is an accreditation process and following Janie, TSBVI Outreach Director Kate Borg shares her experiences with this specific program.

Schools for the blind are often responsible for more than sheer academics.  We are responsible for the whole student; helping them navigate the world as well as textbooks.  TSBVI Social Worker (and 27-year veteran of blind education) Michael Clinkscales joins Emily for a wide-ranging conversation on what brought a college student intent on teaching to taking on social work for a school for the bli...

Dr. John Ravenscroft brings our first international perspective to the podcast to discuss brain based visual impairment (CVI, NIVI) as well as how proper research is helping practitioners in the field achieve better results for our kids. Sara Kitchen from TSBVI Outreach also joins us to show how TVI's and the Texas Sensory Support Network are helping kids with CVI right here at home.

The National Federation of the Blind is one of the best known entities in blind services nationwide.  But as with many things we think we know, there's always so much more to learn about a subject.  Norma Crosby, the president of the NFB of Texas, joins Emily to discuss the many things the organization has cooking and to talk about living the life she wants.  Afterwards Emily speaks to a TSBVI stu...