Visual Impairment Support Services
The philosophy of the Intermediate Unit 1 vision support program is that all students who are visually impaired are valuable and important individuals, much more like other children than different from them. The ultimate goal of the vision support program is to prepare students with varying degrees of visual impairment to function as productive members of society.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines "visual impairment including blindness" as an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
Vision support services may be direct or indirect in the areas of:
- Concept Skills
- Academic Skills
- Auditory Skills
- Sensory/Motor Skills
- Orientation and Mobility Skills
- Career/Vocational Skills
- Organizational/Productivity Skills
- Braille Skills
- Recreation/Leisure Skills
- Assistive Technology Skills
- Social Skills
- Independent Daily Living Skills
- Utilization of Low Vision Skills
Contact Us
Assistive Technology Consultant - Vision
Trisha Kress
724-222-1040 (IU1 Educational Campus at Laboratory)
Itinerant Teachers of the Visually Impaired
Jenny Barney
724-941-5020 ext. 3602 (McMurray Elementary School)
Philly Black
724-736-4391 (Perry Elementary School)
Karen Derrick
724-222-1040 ext. 139 (IU1 Educational Campus at Laboratory)
Terri Fernandes
724-947-8120 (Burgettstown Jr./Sr. High School)
Louise Grace
724-938-7396 ext. 13 (IU1 Educational Campus at Phillipsburg)
Pam Neill
724-583-1091 (Masontown Elementary)
Sally Nurminen
724-628-1350 (Connellsville High School)
Janet Smithnosky
724-222-1040 ext. 140 (IU1 Educational Campus at Laboratory)
