Blindness and visual disabilities do not discriminate. Anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or creed, can face a lifetime of limited vision or no sight at all. For some, it begins at birth. For others, it can come with age,
Read moreVisual Disabilities faculty, students join in strong representation at IAER meeting
Rachel Newland found the NIU Department of Special and Early Education’s Visual Disabilities Program through a YouTube search. And in coming to the College of Education, she’s found a home. “Dr. Kapperman has been my primary guide; his interest in sex education
Read moreVisual Disabilities students impress with research at biennial conference
Gaylen Kapperman has attended countless professional conferences during his nearly half-century in academia. But the professor emeritus in the Department of Special and Early Education’s Visual Disabilities program is hard-pressed to remember a meeting room fuller than the one he encountered this
Read moreBill Penrod, Ximena Burgin researching Safe Toddles Pediatric Belt Cane efficacy
When Hunter College instructor Grace Ambrose-Zaken needed someone to research the efficacy of a device she helped to invent for children with visual disabilities, she knew where to turn. “She only sent out grant proposals to people she had known for a
Read moreNIU distributing iBill currency readers to individuals with visual impairments
NIU is now a distribution center for free iBill currency readers that enable people with visual disabilities to sort their paper money. The designation from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing comes thanks to the work of
Read more‘Book of record’: NIU faculty, alums help write new ‘bible’ on vision rehab therapy
Sue Dalton, a longtime instructor in the Department of Special and Early Education’s Visual Impairments program, is the author of two chapters in the newly published “Foundations of Vision Rehabilitation Therapy.” Its publication is heralded as a landmark moment by practitioners in
Read moreGraduate student whips up a sweet recipe to teach children about visual disabilities
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 alumna Kateri Gullifor discovers joy, national acclaim in teaching
Kateri Gullifor laughs now when she thinks about the big red flag she wisely ignored on the way to her career. “I’ve never been one to be super well-oriented,” says Gullifor, a Teacher of the Visually Impaired and the only Orientation and
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
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
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