Determining Type & Amount of Itinerant TVI Service – Using the VISSIT

Participants will be able to:

• Identify the purpose of a new service intensity scale for determining type and amount of service provided by itinerant TVIs.
• Recognize how the VISSIT can be used to recommend type and amount of service for all students with visual impairments.
• Understand the findings of the field-testing and initial validation study done on the VISSIT, as well as preliminary findings from a larger scale, national study on the use of the tool.

PRESENTERS SUMMARY:
Rona Pogrund, Ph.D. is a Professor and Coordinator of the Program for Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments in the College of Education at Texas Tech University. She offices in Austin at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Dr. Pogrund, with over forty years in the field of visual impairment, is dual-certified as both a TVI and an O&M specialist, has presented at state, national, and international levels multiple times during her career, and has a long list of publications including the TAPS O&M Curriculum and Early Focus: Working with Young Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired and Their Families. She serves as chairperson of the Service Intensity Subcommittee of the Texas Action Committee on Education of Students with Visual Impairments that developed the VISSIT and was Principal Investigator of the validation studies on the new scale.