Elizabeth Hipskind stood in front of a room full of TVIs – teachers of the visually impaired – wearing an apron and prepared with a plastic tub of moist baby-wipes. Hipskind had come to the February conference of the Illinois Association for
Read moreVisual Disabilities wins federal grant to train specialists to support adults
NIU’s Department of Special and Early Education long has enjoyed U.S. Department of Education grants to train professionals to work with people who are blind or visually disabled. For more than 40 consecutive years, those federal dollars have supported NIU’s preparation of
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Stacy Kelly, an associate professor in the Department of Special and Early Education, is the recipient of the 2020 Exemplary Advocate Award from the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Visual Impairment and Deafblindness. The annual award recognizes “exemplary leadership and commitment
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Todd Gilson, acting associate dean of Research, Resources and Innovation in the NIU College of Education, has been named a Fellow of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). His election to Fellow status is “a well-earned recognition of his contributions to
Read moreVisual Disabilities Program hosts expert for Cortical Visual Impairment workshop
Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of visual impairment in children in the United States, which naturally makes it a high priority subject for educators of current and future practitioners. “It’s huge and growing. CVI is a national health crisis
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Jesse (Woody) Johnson, an associate professor in the Department of Special and Early Education, will receive one of two Distinguished Graduate Faculty Awards for 2018-19 from the NIU Graduate School. The awards, first presented in the fall semester of 2016, recognize excellence
Read moreWayfinding: CATIS students navigate campus with latest assistive technology
Modern assistive technology that helps people who are blind to navigate the world is nothing short of amazing. But it’s not perfect – yet. Try traversing a college campus, for example, through the web of winding sidewalks and grassy expanses. Even the
Read moreVision Program graduate student earns prestigious Donald Blasch Scholarship
Michael Foster, a Vision Program graduate student working toward a master’s degree in Orientation and Mobility, is one of two recipients of the prestigious Donald Blasch Scholarship. Sponsored by the O&M division of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and
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Congratulations to these members of the College of Education family! Annie Malecki, a Physical Education major, was recognized as a SHAPE America Major of the Year with about 80 other students from Physical Education Teacher Education programs across the country. She plans
Read moreProject VITALL group explores Consumer Electronics Show
Stacy Kelly wants a robot. The associate professor in the NIU College of Education’s Vision Program came to that realization after she and a trio of graduate students in the Project VITALL master’s degree program spent three days at the annual Consumer
Read morePeople with visual impairments might score romance on Tinder, SEED researchers discover
Men with visual disabilities are more likely to find dates on Tinder than are women with visual disabilities, according to a study by professors and their graduate research assistants in the NIU Department of Special and Early Education. Published in the July-August
Read moreVisual Impairments grad student hopes to improve lives, system
When Lizzy Koster graduated from Hendrix College in Arkansas, she took a job as an assistant at a political consulting firm. It didn’t last long. “Politics wasn’t what I imagined it would be,” says Koster, an NIU College of Education graduate student
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