Listening to Ms. McManus talk about the steps that are taken to help someone who is visually impaired really surprised me. Being visually impaired myself, I didn't realize all the steps and training I would have to go through to be able to function in society if my vision were to completely go. It seems that she basically helps you to adjust to trusting your senses, hearing, and touch so that students are able to have some normality. The orientation process seems to be very extensive but really beneficial when it comes to survival. I also never would have thought about textile learning for the visually impaired. I have always associated textile learning with sensory learning so that was something that was next for me when watching the video. I would imagine for parents trying to decide on schooling for a child that in visually impaired would be hard. The decision to put them in a school that can help them navigate through the impairment or put them in a typical school where they will be a LRE could a difficult decision. I was wondering while watching the video is it harder for an Orientation and Mobility Specialist to teach a child that will gradually lose their vision but is not completely blind how to change how they navigate in society than it is for a child that is born blind and automatically learn these navigational skills from the beginning?
I agree that deciding where to send a child to school is a challenging and complex decision for a parent to make, especially with a blind or visually impaired individual. You raise an interesting point about whether it is easier for an orientation or mobility specialist to teach a child that will gradually lose navigational skills or is born blind. I had never thought about how that may differ the procedure for teaching and the challenges associated with gradual loss vs loss from the beginning, so thank you for raising this point!