Posts In: Parenting

What is the purpose of your upcoming meeting? What has been going well? What needs to change? These are three questions you should ask yourself before each IEP meeting for your child.

Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings can feel overwhelming. Seated around the table are members of the team—a teacher of blind students, the classroom teacher, and the IEP team chair person.

In order to craft appropriate goals for an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), the team needs recent, high quality data. This data needs to cover the child’s current skills, strengths, and FACTOR IN future success. Here are some things to keep in mind when assessments are administered to, and interpreted for, children who are blind or low vision.  

Mom:    “You have a college degree, a good job, a great husband, a beautiful home, that should be enough for you!” Me:        “I seriously doubt anyone ever questioned your decision to become a mother.  Just because I am blind, does not mean I do not have the same hopes, dreams and desires as any other woman.”

I have been a father now for more than thirty years, and I remember very well when this condition came upon me. It was mysterious, scary, and joyous. A brand new human being was my responsibility, and I could imagine all of the things that could go wrong. Many of them did.

Many parents of blind children first come to know of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) through its Parents’ Division, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC). The NOPBC holds its annual conference during the NFB national convention each summer, this year, from June 30 to July 5 in Orlando, Florida.

There are many different kinds of moms out there. The crunchy mom who makes her own almond milk, the crafty mom who makes every birthday party decoration or teacher gift from scratch, the soccer mom, the yogi mom, the play group mom, the PTA mom, the new mom, the empty nest mom, the ___(fill in the blink)___ mom.

Twenty-two years ago on October 8, 1993 we brought into the world a 7 pound 13 ounce baby boy we named Christopher William Meeker. We both have been blind all our lives but we had never been parents. As most parents are, we were scared to death of being responsible for this precious little one who was dependent on us for his every need.

As a mother of three children, ages 9, 5, and 3, who happens to be blind, I have heard a litany of “disadvantages” or “difficulties” being a blind parent must present my husband and me.

As a parent, I often think about creating opportunities for my children to learn and grow. Sometimes it is simply being present to recognize those opportunities that emerge in the course of a normal day. Other times it is creating opportunities for learning through new experiences. No one ever taught me how to do this as a parent.