20 Interacting with Blind and Low Vision Students

• When initiating a conversation, always give your name to identify yourself. Doing so is both respectful and ensures that students can focus on the content of what you are saying instead of working to determine who is speaking.
• Provide a verbal cue to prepare a student for any touch or move. It can be scary to be touched without warning. Any contact without consent, however well-intentioned, is not supportive of the student’s agency and independence.
• Use vision-related terms, such as “Have you seen…?” or “Look at ___.” However, do not use idioms or other language that associates blindness or low vision with ignorance, obliviousness, or helplessness. See this BBC article on ableist language (Nović, 2021).
• Use explicit instructions with directional terms (e.g., left, above, or 11 on a clock) instead of vague terms (e.g., this, that, here, and over there). Concrete referents in instructions are essential as demonstratives such as “this” and “that” used without context often assume that the receiver (in this case, the learner) has unimpaired visual access to what is being referred to.
• Provide a warning and some context about noises that may be unexpected (e.g., a timer will go off to signal the end of this activity).

• If guiding a student, offer your arm for the student to hold to help the student be more attentive and in control. You can ask the student what works best. Review step-by-step instructions for guide techniques (Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 2023).
• Describe the environment, resources, and obstacles if the student is unable to identify these independently.
• As needed, and with the student’s permission, to promote the student’s sense of control and engagement in an activity, utilize hand-under-hand prompting. Hand-under-hand guidance is better when physical guidance is needed rather than hand-over-hand prompting. The hand-under-hand technique is demonstrated in the image at right, where the hand of the adult is exploring the keys of a manual braillewriter and the child’s hand is on top of the adult’s hand, facilitating the child’s active engagement in the activity. To see hand-under-hand prompting in action, view this 6-minute video (Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 2017).
• For students who require more direct prompting and may not understand verbal prompts, never place an object directly into the student’s hands. Instead, try presenting the object to the student’s forearm and moving it slowly down toward their hand. This gives the student a preview of the objects, cues tactile exploration, and gives them the opportunity to engage or disengage.

• Be generous in your acceptance of self-stimulatory behaviors such as rocking, tapping, or vocalizing; they can be a means to maintain alertness in the face of tension, stress, boredom, or fatigue. Redirect to a more appropriate time or place if these behaviors are socially offensive.
• Anticipate and accept an eccentric gaze (head tilting or looking to the side); it may provide a more reliable focus for the student. Likewise, nystagmus (jerky eye movements) is not voluntary.
• Recognize that popular depictions of blind and low vision characters in the media may be based on stereotypes and may not be a true reflection of the blind and low vision community. For example, exploring someone’s face by touch is not a common strategy for familiarization. For more perspective on the importance of authentic representation in the media, see the World Services for the Blind article with insights from Joe Stretchay (Rogers, 2023).

Person-first vs. identity-first language

According to the American Psychological Association’s Inclusive Language Guide, Second Edition, “[a]uthors who write about identity are encouraged to use terms and descriptions that both honor and explain person-first and identity-first perspectives. Language should be selected with the understanding that the individual’s preference supersedes matters of style” (APA, 2023, p. 9). Many individuals take exception to their identity as blind and low vision people being relegated to secondary status with person-first language, as opposed to integral to their identity as promoted by identity-first language. A quick online search of this topic brings up many blog posts and other writings from disabled authors and content creators – always center disabled voices and perspectives when speaking about disability, such as the Be My Eyes “Inclusive Language” Guide (Bashin, 2024).

Some terms are considered problematic and should be avoided. These include euphemisms for blindness and low vision, such as the following:

• Visually challenged person
• Differently sighted person
• Sight-challenged person
• Person with blindness

• Blind person
• Visually impaired person
• Low vision person
• Partially sighted person
• Person who is blind
• Person who is visually impaired
• Person who is vision-impaired

References

American Psychological Association. (2023). Inclusive language guide (2nd ed.). 
https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/language-guidelines.pdf

Bashin, B. (2024, May). Be My Eyes “inclusive language” guide. Be My Eyes. https://www.bemyeyes.com/blog/be-my-eyes-inclusive-language-guide

Nović, S. (2021, April 5). The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210330-the-harmful-ableist-language-you-unknowingly-use

Rogers, L. (2023, December 4). Why representation matters in all the light we cannot see with Joe Strechay. World Services for the Blind. https://www.wsblind.org/blog/2023/12/4/why-representation-matters-on-all-the-light-we-cannot-see-with-joe-strechay

Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. (2017, April 17). Hand-under-hand vs. hand-over-hand with Carrie and Ben [Video]. https://library.tsbvi.edu/Play/14634#!

Wisconsin Department of Health Services. (2023, January 13). OBVI: Sighted guide techniques. https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/obvi/adjustment/sightedguidetech.htm