287: Tips for Working with Students with Visual Impairments
Show Notes:
In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, Hallie sits down with Kassy Maloney—Orientation and Mobility Specialist and founder of the Society of Exceptional Educators—to talk about what SLPs really need to know when working with students who have visual impairments. Kassy shares practical, real-world tips for adapting your lessons (even if you don’t have braille or fancy tools), why collaboration with TVIs and O&Ms is a game-changer, and how small changes—like saying your name when entering a room—can make a big difference. If supporting students with visual impairments has ever felt intimidating, this convo will leave you feeling more equipped, more connected, and ready to jump in—no braille training required.
Here's what we learned:
- Reach out to the TVI and O&M specialist early—they can give you quick tips that save tons of guesswork.
- Always say your name when entering or leaving—it’s a small habit that builds connection and clarity.
- Use real objects to bring concepts to life—it’s faster, easier, and more effective than trying to reinvent your whole lesson.
- Skip hand-over-hand guidance—offer your arm and talk them through it instead.
- Build in more wait time than you think they need—it’s not hesitation, it’s processing.
- Check for background knowledge—they might be missing basic concepts most kids learn through sight.
- Don’t guess on tactile tools—talk to the TVI to make sure your adaptations match their learning style.
- No need to avoid words like “see” or “look”—natural language is fine.
- You don’t need to learn braille—just focus on clear input, creative supports, and collaboration.
RESOURCES
Learn more about Kassy Maloney:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kassandra-maloney-6b815844
Website: https://www.exceptionaleducators.us
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@exceptionaleducators
Instagram: https://instagram.com/exceptionaleducators.us
Facebook: https://facebook.com/exceptionaleducators.us
More from Kassy:
Learn more about Hallie Sherman and SLP Elevate:
🎧 Check out the Secondary Secret Podcast here!
JOKE OF THE WEEK:
Q: Why do fish like to eat worms?
A: Because they get hooked on them
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00 Hallie: Hey there, SLP. I have a quick question for you. What if you could have just one book on your shelf that actually gets the challenges of working with middle school and high school students? Well, it's here. Well, actually, the preorder is here, but, hey, I'm so excited to let you know that my brand new book, The Secondary SLP Guide, is available for preorder. And when you preorder, you get an exclusive bonus that you won't want to miss.
00:00:31 Hallie: It is packed with real talk strategies, quick tips, and inspiration that you can use with your middle school and high school students all year long. This is the perfect book for a book club, a grad student group, or just flipping through when you're stuck and in a IEP writing spiral. So head to speechtimefun.com/preorder or head to my Instagram and send me a DM with the word preorder, and I will send you the link so you can preorder now. And I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book in November, but the sooner you grab it, the better the bonus.
00:01:17 Hallie: Welcome to SLP Coffee Talk, the podcast designed exclusively for speech language pathologists who work with older students, grades 4 through 12. I am your host, Hallie Sherman, your SLP behind Speech Time Fun, the Speech Retreat Conference, and the SLP Elevate membership. And I'm thrilled to bring you conversations, strategies, and insights that will give you the jolt of inspiration that you need. Whether you're tuning in during your morning commute, on a break in between sessions, or even during a well deserved relaxation time, I am here for you each and every week. Let's do this, SLPs.
00:01:57 Hallie: Hey. Hey. And welcome to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. Today, I don't have an SLP, but I bet some of you guys have had students or will have students on your caseload with visual impairments. I know I have. One of my first few years in the field, I will never forget it. I had a student on my case line who was in fifth grade. She had autism, and she was blind. And what do we know as SLPs? What was one of our favorite strategies to help our students with language impairments is giving them visual aids. And that was very, very challenging for me. So I'm so excited to have my guest, Kassy, here today to talk all about working with students with visual impairments. Kassy, welcome to the show.
00:02:44 Kassy: Thank you so much for having me. This is going to be such a great conversation.
00:02:49 Hallie: Tell everyone listening a little bit about you and your role in the world.
00:02:57 Kassy: You know what's so fun is that even a lot of SLPs may not know what an orientation and mobility specialist is. So I'm going to use some words in our conversation today, but don't worry. I will define everything that I say as soon as I say it. We also have a lot of acronyms in the VI world so I'll explain what those are. But I have been an orientation and mobility specialist for the past seventeen years and I still am currently practicing. I have just a few students at this time. An orientation and mobility specialist is somebody who works with people who are visually impaired to teach them how to know where they are in space, that's the orientation part, and to safely get to where they want to go, that's the mobility part.
00:03:43 Kassy: And I've been doing that, like I said, for, gosh, seventeen years now. But in 2018, I stepped away from my full time job because I started a conference for orientation and mobility specialists. It was a global conference all online, and I really loved serving people, and I loved serving our community, and I loved the conversations at this level. Conversations with my students are super great. You know? And I love lesson planning and deciding what we're going to do.
0004:15 Kassy: But talking about pedagogy and talking about how to help your students in the best way possible and talking about just the evolution and a history of education and educators is really where my sweet spot is. And I currently own an organization called the Society of Exceptional Educators, and we provide 21st century teaching strategies to all educators working with students who have visual impairments.
00:04:42 Hallie: Wow. That is so amazing. I love it that you love educating others and inspiring others. So in case someone listening is not fully aware, what classifies someone as a visually impaired? Is someone completely blind? Is it someone who would just limited – I said, like, what classifies someone as visually impaired?
00:05:03 Kassy: That's actually really interesting because it depends on how old the person is and who's classifying them. So visual impairment in it of itself doesn't have a specific acuity number. So the acuity number is the 20 over whatever. 20 over 20 is the normed amount, and it goes all the way up to 20 over 2,000, 8,000, and then into counts fingers. So there isn't a specific number for that. What I will say, for your SLPs, is if any student is having difficulty accessing their education, if they can't access their FAPE, their free and appropriate public education, then they could qualify as a student with a visual impairment. But it's actually all on a spectrum.
00:05:48 Kassy: I've had students who can see really well during the day maybe or even just really well in general. They just have nystagmus, which means that their eyes are jerky and they move back and forth. So it makes it very difficult to read, and they just need a few accommodations all the way to that counts fingers that I talked about, and then even more so into no light perception or even I've had students who have no eyeballs. And so it's a full spectrum and a wide gamut.
00:06:16 Hallie: And typically, I know for me in the districts that I've worked in, the students that got those services, it was like an agency or like a BOCES or someone from the outside. It wasn't the district employee that came in, and I would see them, like, walking around the building with them and walking around the perimeter and doing the stairs. Is that, like, your role, like?
00:06:38 Kassy: Yeah. Kind of. Okay. Let's break this down. We're going to start all the way from the back. We're going to go all the way back. Alright. So we know scientifically that 90% of what we learn, we learn incidentally. Just think about, like, a baby, right, who's watching their mom make a sandwich. They watch their mom make the same sandwich for every day for five years. The mom goes to the cupboard, gets out the bread, they go to the fridge, gets out the jelly. Wherever you keep your peanut butter, they get it from there. This baby watches all of these things happen and has then an understanding of where peanut butter and jelly sandwich comes from. The bread is already pre-sliced. This is where you get spoons from. This is what a spoon is. This is how you scoop. All of that in the five minutes.
00:07:24 Kassy: Think about all of the skills, all of the things that we use our vision for that our students with visual impairments don't have access to. And so when they get to school, there's a lot of concept gaps that end up happening. So we actually educate them not just on the core curriculum, but the expanded core curriculum, which is an entire curriculum that's a framework just for students with visual impairments to help them become successful at life because they missed 90% of that learning.
00:07:56 Kassy: And that teacher that teaches them is typically a teacher of students with visual impairments. This is a degree that you would get just like your SLP degree from your university. It's through the Department of Education. And, typically, the TVI is… depends on how big your school district is, but most TVIs are employed. There are W2 employees within the school district, and there's typically a very small team. Like, even here in Austin, I think the team of TVIs and O&Ms is, like, nine people big… like, nine of them altogether for a big school district of over maybe a million students. So it's it's pretty small.
00:08:35 Kassy: But when you get into a smaller school district, they don't have enough hours to even justify that FTE, and so we are on contract. And orientation and mobility specialists are often more typically on contract because we only teach one of those nine areas. And so, yeah, we might be a W2 employee within your school district. We might also be contract. But either way, unless your student is going to a residential school, we will be itinerant, which means we're popping in for maybe thirty minutes at a school a week, every two weeks, a month. And so you might see an orientation and mobility specialist walking silently behind a student or cane skills or doing stairs or something of that nature. Yeah.
00:09:21 Hallie: I had to ask since I always just see them popping in and out, and I never had that opportunity to have that dialogue with them. Like, hey. Like, who do you work for? Or whatever. Where did you come from? So it's so interesting. And I love that you even said with the peanut butter and jelly, like, there's so much – and that's language, and that's things that students need. So what should an SLP know that they – all of a sudden, they have a new student on their case, so maybe they came in from another town, they came in from another grade or another building, they have a visual impairment. What are some things they need to know?
00:09:54 Kassy: I think this is a really good question because we actually have an epidemic of visual impairments going on right now. Medically, if you think about it, a lot of babies are being saved more, and more complex babies are being saved. And they come with communication issues. They come with SLP needs. And oftentimes, they may also come with a visual impairment that goes along with that. So the very first time that you have a student with a visual impairment, here are just a few things for you to know.
00:10:24 Kassy: First and foremost is greeting, talking. How do you talk to a person with a visual impairment? It's all the same. So just relax. Take that stress off yourself. The only thing that I would say is make sure that when you walk into a room or you leave a room or you walk into a conversation or you leave a conversation, that you just make that announcement. For you guys, for our SLPs born in the 1900s, you might remember regular telephones where you had to call and they couldn't see your caller ID. Just act like that. Like, act like it's a landline.
00:10:59 Kassy: Now if you never lived in a world where you had to say your name, then this might be a little trickier for you, and, you're probably better at technology than I am, but just pretend like you're on a landline and that they don't know who you are. All you have to do is say, hi, Johnny. It's Ms. Kassy. How are you today? And then when you're done talking with Johnny, say, okay, Johnny. I'm going to leave now. Very simple things like that. You could say the word see. You could say look. You… don't worry about anything of that nature.
00:11:30 Kassy: The next thing after that is going to be how will you get around. And for that, I would say talk with your TVI and your O&M. You mentioned that you didn't get a chance to talk to them, and I think that that's so true. We live in a world where we are all so rushed and we're so siloed. And it's not really anybody's fault. We're all doing our best. But if you start to have a student with a visual impairment on your caseload, don't try to, like, tackle it all on your own. Just send the text. Just call. Just reach out via email to the TVI and the O&M because they want you to succeed.
00;12:13 Kassy: And more often than not, they'll be able to give you that individualized information for that student because you want to make sure that if the student needs to be guided, which is, like, they'll hold on to your arm, that you're doing that safely. If they need to be using their cane, that you're doing that safely. If you have a student who can see during the day or can see when it's bright out, but they can't see in the dark, and that happens pretty often or especially around adolescence, you need to know that so that you don't just do the normal thing of walking into a dark classroom where your eyes adjust and then they are frozen. So little things of that nature, I would say reach out to them.
00:12:55 Kassy: The next thing that you want to make sure that you're doing, I would say, is to make sure that your lessons, they don't have to look the same, but you can keep the same functionality. And so when you're thinking about adapting your lessons, you might be used to using, like, cards. Right? But maybe you still use cards, but maybe you make it tactile, or maybe you have a switch of some sort, or maybe you have the student lift their arm instead of identifying words. Get creative, and then, again, communicate with the other team members because they want you to succeed, and they'll be able to help shape your instruction to meet those visual impairment needs.
00:13:44 Hallie: I'm going to share what I did with this student, and I want you to tell me, was I on the right track or not. Because this was, like, pre-Pinterest, pre-Teachers Pay Teachers, and yeah. I went to Michael's and because I think this was even pre Amazon, and got puff letter stickers. And I put it on index cards. And I would put, like, my visual of, like, if we were working on categories. I mean, they were sorting categories. I put the different categories on index cards with the puff stickers. So instead of getting everything brailled because I didn't have access to the time or the resources or the know-how, I can't read braille. So was this the right strategy that I did?
00:14:30 Kassy: Lovingly, it's not the one that I would have chosen. Oh, my goodness.
00:14:37 Hallie: I mean, this was, like, seventeen, eighteen years ago. Okay? Like this is, like, my third year in the field, so let's give me a little bit of slack here.
00:14:44 Kassy: I'm giving you all the slack. The thing that I want to congratulate you on is trying and thinking outside the box. And it makes sense why you would think that because you see the letter visually, so they might be able to feel the letter visually. It really depends on their learning media. And that's why I suggest talking to the TVI because if they're using raised letters as their learning media, maybe, it's just that spatially, like, when you think about how the brain is wired – and you wouldn't know this unless, like, you spent $30 grand and five years in college, right, to know this. So it's okay. But spatially, letter recognition tactually is really hard. That's why Braille exists. Because if everybody could do that, it would be so much easier. They would. We wouldn't need Braille. So it makes sense as to why you did it. The key here is that you tried.
00:15:44 Hallie: I give myself props for trying. I mean, hey, there was no Googling what to do with the student, and I was split in two different building. So, like, I didn't even have the time to collaborate with her VI teacher and stuff like that.
00:15:59 Kassy: And you're talking a lot about the lack of time. You are hitting the nail on the head. That is… time is our biggest resource. And as teachers, we don't have a lot of time. And I know a lot of teachers think that, you know, money is our biggest resource because we get paid a certain amount every month, blah blah blah. But, really, it's time. And if you're not in that same building, it can be really tricky to reach out. So that, you know, you got to give yourself grace and understand that children have a lot of neuroplasticity. Like, that kid was fine.
00:16:36 Hallie: So now SLPs tend to like to use – I mean, we don't love worksheets, but every ones… we need visual aids, we like to have some sort of visual activity. How can SLPs with limited time, limited resources, adapt their materials and instruction to be able to incorporate this student in the group with the other students?
00:16:58 Kassy: I would say two things, using real objects because you can typically get a real object, and it doesn't take as much time than to make, like, a tactile symbol. But if you're having a discussion or maybe reading a book, right, about a beach ball, they go to the beach, get a beach ball. Get maybe some sand in a bucket or something of that nature to help make those intangible concepts tangible. That's what speech is. It's taking the intangible and making it tangible and use that.
00:17:30 Kassy: The other one was if you can make it auditory and that's all that you have, then make it auditory. But if you can get some objects, get some objects as well. The other thing that I would say is look for concept gaps. Because just like I said, your students are going to have a lot of concept gaps just from not seeing, not knowing what's around. And because students with visual impairments often learn part to whole where people with vision learn whole to part, they may not even know that there's a steering wheel in the car if they've never come across it. So just do a lot of checking for understanding, and then you'll have a better idea of what their needs are.
00:18:09 Hallie: I love that. I mean, we so often need to check for background knowledge for all of our students. So just going a little deeper, and I never thought about the parts versus the whole. That's so, so interesting. What are some other common modifications to keep in mind to keep them engaged and learning and without needing braille?
00:18:28 Kassy: Yeah. Well, I would say if you do have access to a braillist, try to get that over to them and see if you can make the time to do so if their student is using Braille. I think it's less than 2% of students with visual impairments use Braille, so you should be fine with that. If you have a 3D printer or a swell machine at your school or in the district, see if you can do that. A lot of times, because we can't just, like, write something on a piece of paper, we do need to plan a little bit further in advance. And I promise that the ROI is 100% worth it. As teachers, especially as itinerant or related service one-on-one teachers, we can get by with, like, planning on the fly. Let's see how this lesson goes because we have to. We have to adapt.
00:19:20 Kassy: But if you have a set of materials and you have things that you've either already made or the teacher has them, like, see if you can just take things from the classroom that they're already using and just take it with you and bring it back. Again, that communication between our previously siloed partners will help a lot.
00:19:45 Hallie: And I'm just thinking with SLPs, we love when lessons get dragged out because then we don't need as much stuff. So don't be afraid of the more you're talking and explaining and bringing things to life orally. You need less stuff.
00:20:00 Kassy: Yeah. And with SLP, I mean, you do want them communicating. Right? So one of the things that I've noticed with a lot of my students is that they need a lot more wait time than I would typically even think. So start sitting on your hands. Write your prompt with your tongue on the roof of your mouth before you say it just to give them a little bit extra time, and maybe that's all that they need. So let me ask you, are you… when you guys are in class, what materials are you typically using?
00:20:39 Hallie: It's a… in our speech rooms, we're simply either using… we might use, books. We might use article – depending on the age of the students. We might use task cards. We might use sorting, like, activities. We might use games. We love using games in our speech room. So more we like using manipulatives, depending on the goal and need at hand. We do like cards, stuff like that.
00:21:06 Kassy: So there are actually… but there are actually suppliers that you can probably get things from where they're already brailled. And you can look up APH, American Printing House, has quota funds. You can go through your school. I mean, of course, this bureaucracy, this takes a while, of course. But you can go through your school and get quota funds and then be able to order some things for free. Or you could look up things places like Maxi Aids might have brailled or large print UNO cards. You might even be able to find Etsy stores with teachers and buy things directly from them so that way you aren't responsible for making it.
00:21:48 Hallie: Interesting. I have seen the Braille UNO cards. Are there any other – because we do love incorporating games into our speech room. Is there any other game adaptations or versions or things that we can be looking into if we want to incorporate games with these students?
00:22:04 Kassy: I think it just depends on what your needs are, and everybody's going to be individualized. And so just search the Internet because that's going to have a much better understanding of what's available right now. There… I don't have anything that's like, oh, this Monopoly game has braille, and I don't have anything like that. It really just, like, vendors come and go pretty often because they're so small, such a small niche. But if you have the ability to even get, like, Braille cards or ask the TVI to help you with that, they can often do it within a week and get it back to you, and then you have the materials that you need to adapt your own games. And then once the materials are made, the materials are made. Like, then you can have all the levels of students. And what I would suggest is when you're adapting materials, make them both large print and braille so that you don't have to do it again.
00:23:00 Hallie: Love that. So, so smart. What are some common faux pas in interacting with people with visual impairments and what to do instead?
00:23:09 Kassy: Oh my gosh. This is a great question. Remember at the very beginning of our conversation when I suggested saying your name? And then when you meet somebody and then saying your name after you leave, we're just letting them know. One thing that I see happen a lot is very well meaning, and it's a-okay if you've done this in the past. But we're going to go the opposite way now because now you'll know better. Is this game that teachers play with my students with visual impairments where it's the who is this game? And, like, where they will walk up to the student or the student will see them in the hallway and say, oh, who is this? Can you imagine how scary that must be for a kid? What happens if you get it wrong? It's like, what teacher?
00:23:53 Hallie: Like like, yeah. Guess my age. And they're like, oh my god.
00:23:59 Kassy: Like, no. I'm not going to do that. Like, you're 21. Like, oh my god. No. It'd be so scary especially because adults have so much power over the students. The other thing that I would say is oftentimes, we think that students can't do something just because there's a little bit of lag time or or because they're demonstrating learned helplessness. Like, let's be real. Our students know who will make them use their skills and who is either in a rush or doesn't know that they have these skills or whatever. And so they might just… what I call it hitch a ride. They might just, like, grab onto your arm and be like, I don't have keen skills. I don't know where I'm going.
00:24:42 Kassy: I would highly recommend that you expect the students to walk as independently as possible. Yes. Sometimes that means that you might have to tell them, oh, the bathroom is right there. We have to turn left instead of turning right or help correct them if they go the wrong way. And it might take a little bit more time, but this is going to help increase their independence tenfold rather than you just doing it for them.
00:25:13 Kassy: Another thing is pushing and pulling and hand over hand. It used to be that we were taught as teachers to put our hand over our students' hands and, like, bring them to whatever. But what that does is that decreases our students' autonomy. So what we want to do is bring our hand… if we want to show them something tactually, bring our hand under our students' hand and help them do it that way.
00:25:45 Kassy: Also, instead of pushing and pulling, students are, like, moving their bodies – especially SLPs. You guys may not have this issue because you're probably so good with words. But normal people have this issue, so I'm going to say it. Just tell them where you want them to go or have them hold on to the back of your elbow like it's a Coke can, and then you just walk. And that's called guide technique, and anybody can do that.
00:26:14 Hallie: So, so interesting, especially because, like, the hand over hand thing is something that has changed also with the autistic community as well with the autonomy. So it's so interesting to think about it also, those visually impaired students as well.
00:26:29 Kassy: Yeah. And probably for every community. And as we grow, we can expect our students to grow as well. And, I mean, we as in, like, a culture, we now understand that, like, grabbing somebody takes away a lot of their control, and most antecedents are due to lack of control. If there's going to be a negative behavior, it's most likely due to lack of control. So we're going to take the student's hand, which is for our kiddos, how they experience the world, then we're, like, basically, like, putting them in a cage. You know? If someone were to put you in a cage and then said, okay. Do X, Y, Z, you might get a little irritated too.
00:27:11 Hallie: I love it. Thank you so, so much. Any other bit of advice or tip that we haven't discussed yet that you feel like SLP should be aware of for working with these students?
00:27:23 Kassy: I think with all teachers working with any kind of student and maybe even all people dealing with any kind of person, it's not about perfection. It's only about taking a step forward every single day. Take something new. Take this podcast. Research something. Go have a conversation with your TVI. You're welcome to ask me questions on Instagram if you have a student. I'm happy to help you out, but you don't have to be perfect. Just have to take a step forward.
00:27:55 Hallie: I love that. Thank you so so much. Where can everyone learn more about you and everything you have to offer?
00:28:03 Kassy: We are happy to help support you. All you have to do is find us at exceptionaleducators.us, and that is everywhere, I believe. exceptionaleducators.us.
00:28:12 Hallie: Thank you so so much, Kassy. I always end my episodes with a joke because jokes build rapport and they're very language based. So why do fish like to eat worms?
00:28:25 Kassy: This is so funny. Is it a language based question? It's not a science based question.
00:28:31 Hallie: [inaudible] They're corny.
00:28:35 Kassy: I don't… have no idea. Wait. Fish, worms? I don't know.
00:28:41 Hallie: Because they get hooked on them.
00:28:44 Kassy: Oh, that's so cute. I love that.
00:28:48 Hallie: My corny dad jokes are here every week for you guys so you can steal them and use them with your students, build rapport, but then you can discuss the language about it and the vocabulary and the multiple meaning and all that fun stuff. So thank you, Kassy. Everyone go check her out on Instagram, our website. And if you have any questions for her, let her know. But until next week, everyone, you know I'm here with you every single week. I have not missed a Monday since, I don't know, 2019 when I launched this podcast. So you can guarantee that next Monday, I will be here as well. Until next week, everyone. Stay out of trouble.
00:29:29 Hallie: Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. It means the world to me that you're tuning in each and every week and getting the jolt of inspiration you need. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at my website, speechtimefun.com. Don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss any future episodes. And while you're there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. See you next week with another episode full of fun and inspiration from one SLP to another. Have fun, guys.
00:30:11 Hallie: Hey there, SLP. I have a quick question for you. What if you could have just one book on your shelf that actually gets the challenges of working with middle school and high school students? Well, it's here. Well, actually, the preorder is here, but, hey, I'm so excited to let you know that my brand new book, The Secondary SLP Guide, is available for preorder. And when you preorder, you get an exclusive bonus that you won't want to miss.
00:30:42 Hallie: It is packed with real talk strategies, quick tips, and inspiration that you can use with your middle school and high school students or all year long. This is the perfect book for a book club, a grad student group, or just flipping through when you're stuck and in a IEP writing spiral. So head to speechtimefun.com/preorder or head to my Instagram and send me a DM with the word preorder, and I will send you the link so you can preorder now. And I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book in November, but the sooner you grab it, the better the bonus.
