Department of Employment, Education and Training

Vision

Vision is a perceptual process with three parts:

• Eye
• Optic pathways
• Brain

Vision impairment

Vision impairment is a diagnosable condition of the eye or visual system that results in less than normal visual functioning.

Vision impairment may be the result of:

• Eye injury or infection;
• Illness or disease;
• An inherited condition;
• Prenatal injury or infection (e.g. rubella); and
• Unknown circumstances.

Children with:

• Colour vision defects;
• Vision in one eye only;
• Vision that has been corrected to normal with glasses;
• A turned eye; and
• Visual perceptual problems.

Are not considered to have a vision impairment. Teachers can contact the Education Advisors for Vision for information and advice on the implications for students with these conditions.

Vision team

There are no segregated settings for students with vision impairments in the Northern Territory. These students attend their local schools. They, and their teachers, receive support from an Education Advisor for Vision. The level of support depends on the individual needs of each student. Provision of service is continually monitored and as far as possible, constantly adjusted to the student’s varying requirements. Advice on a consultancy basis is available to staff in schools for identified students with additional special needs.

Queries or initial contact can be made through the Vision Advisory Coordinator.

Service provision

The service is delivered Territory wide to all children and students with educationally significant vision impairments. Support is offered to children and their parents from birth, or as soon as a student is identified as having a vision impairment. Students are supported through pre-school, primary and secondary school.

Support services are based in Darwin at the Northern Territory Educational Resource Centre for the Vision Impaired (NTERCVI), which is located at Wulagi School Campus.

Service to students in the Darwin region is provided on a regular weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. Students in remote areas are supported by Education Advisors for Vision with visits at regular intervals for up to a week at a time.

In remote areas either Special Education Teachers or Inclusion Support Assistants work with these students and their teachers between the Education Advisors for Vision visits. Regular contact to monitor programs is maintained by telephone, fax and email.

The NTERCVI is the only braille production agency in the Northern Territory. Additional resources in the form of equipment, tactile adaptations, large print and audio materials are provided.

The Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) accesses an instructor from the Guide Dogs Association to provide orientation and mobility services and support with life skills programs to students to assist them to function independently, move safely within the school area and to travel independently in the wider environment.

DEET also accesses an Adaptive Technology Consultant through Vision Australia to work collaboratively in providing intensive programs that focus on the students’ adaptive technology needs and self advocacy skills.

Resources

• Vision and Learning (pdf 24Kb)
• Vision in the classroom (pdf 64Kb)
• The role of the Vision Advisor (pdf 24Kb)
• Detecting a Visual Dysfunction checklist (pdf 62Kb)
• Vision Parental consent form and Eye Specialist report (word 27Kb)

Contacts

Vision Advisory Coordinator
Phone: (08) 8999 8704

Education Advisors for Vision
Phone: (08) 8999 8787