Report
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at the Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted, Hellerup, Denmark
April 26-28, 2001
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Pam presented the outcomes of the questionnaire survey. A summary follows here, a copy of the full report incl. appendices is available from Pam or from the Visual Impairment Information Centre (visinfo@visinfo.dk).
Pamela Cory, M.A.
This questionnaire was written to determine how ADL-Teachers for blind and low vision persons are trained. Its purpose is twofold: 1) to foster communication among ADL-Personnel-Preparation programs - even though diverse structural, political, cultural and economic circumstances complicate discussions on this issue -and 2) to improve the quality of ADL-Teaching for blind and low vision persons in Europe.
64 questionnaires were sent to 44 countries in September 2000. 24 institutions from 21 countries responded (48 % of the 44 countries). 4 do not conduct ADL-Personnel-Preparation Courses. 20 agencies from 17 countries conduct ADL-Personnel-Preparation courses. Three countries, however, did not fill out the questionnaire, other than to note that they have ADL-Personnel-Preparation. Thus, information about content pertains only to 17 agencies from 14 responding countries.
Some agencies apparently have more than one form of ADL-Personnel-Preparation as reflected in their course descriptions. Some institutions offer both a course for single and for dual qualification. A few give more than one description of their ADL-Personnel-Preparation courses.
The majority, however, (or 70,5 %) have ADL-Personnel-Preparation programs which are classified as highly qualified further education, designed for simultaneous acquisition of dual expertise as an ADL- and an O&M-Teacher.
The majority (12 of 17) require their course participants to have 1) a higher level of education and 2) prior experience with visually impaired persons before entering their ADL-Personnel-Preparation courses. Further prerequisites mentioned were health, good vision and hearing, age limitations, and high motivation. Two unique prerequisites - each mentioned by an individual agency - were the candidate's manual abilities and the passing of a test to determine attitudes and aptitudes.
Most institutions agree upon two prerequisites: 1) instructors must be qualified as ADL-Teachers and 2) they must have many years experience in working with visually impaired persons in this field. An additional stipulation mentioned by several institutions was that instructors must further their education.
Answers dealing with the amount of experience for instructors in ADL-Personnel-Preparation courses varies from "hardly any" to "a lot" of experience. In order to further quantify and standardize the levels of experience that are required for ADL-Personnel-Preparation instructors, it is recommended that the existing programs consider adopting a more accurate definition of the necessary experience required.
The length of an instruction hour varies greatly. The wide variety of definitions of the educational unit (instruction hour) makes communication about course length difficult. Discussions and comparisons of course content could be more effective, if equivalent time units were established.
The course cost as well as the cost of living during the course is covered most often by the participant's employer or by government sources. In some cases foundations and associations of the visually impaired offer funding. It is, however, possible that participants have to carry these costs themselves.
The activities of ADL-Teachers is not a state recognized profession in nearly 80% of the responding countries.
One country notes that the graduates of the ADL-Personnel-Preparation courses receive a professional title, which is protected and officially recognized by the state. Although the professional title in other agencies is neither protected nor legally recognized, it is in some instances recognized by the national association of the visually impaired and/or the national professional association of education and rehabilitation for the visually impaired.
The most frequently mentioned employers of qualified ADL-Teachers in Europe are institutions for visually impaired persons (such as schools, rehabilitation centers, low vision clinics and counseling centers) and associations of the blind. The institutions for visually impaired persons are usually government funded (education, health and/or welfare services), although there is some private funding.
age groups
71% (12 institutions) train their participants to work with clients of all ages. 18% (3 agencies) refrain from training ADL-Teachers to work with children. 12% (2 agencies) do not include working with senior citizens in their course content.
Additional impairments (sensory-, physical-, learning impairment and/or mental retardation)
All of the responding ADL-Personnel-Preparation courses train ADL-Teachers to work with blind and low vision adults with or without additional sensory impairments. 82% prepare teachers to work with blind and low vision persons with additional physical impairments. 82% include learning impairments in their curriculum. But only 71% train ADL-Teachers to also work with mentally retarded blind and low vision individuals. In summary, the topics "physical handicaps", "learning impairments" and "mental retardation" are not automatically incorporated as subject matter in the ADL-Personnel-Preparation courses.
12 agencies note that their ADL-Teachers serve clients of all ages with or without additional impairments, but only 9 of them provide the training for their graduates to do so. It is disturbing that ADL-Personnel-Preparation curricula do not uniformly cover those areas in which the ADL-Teacher later must work.
The increasing number of impairments which accompany visual impairment raises two questions:
The questionnaire shows that the following topics are included in the curricula of most of the responding institutions:
The structural, political, cultural and economic circumstances, which vary from country to country, complicate discussions on ADL personnel preparation. In spite of this, we should continue to document content, length and quality of such personnel preparation in keeping with the goal of this first questionnaire.