Whenever I speak about my experiences with working with a teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) while attending public school, people are often surprised by how many lessons my TVI taught me in high school, even though I did not see them very often. They inspired me to learn so much about the world of visual impairment and assistive technology, and they are one of the main reasons I started writing about these topics on my own website and pursued further graduate studies. However, there were moments during my first year of college that I wish they had taught me certain things about transitioning to higher education, or at least given me some guidance about how to learn about them. Here is a list of ten things I wish my TVI taught me about college transition and preparing to go to a four-year college.
Questions to ask when choosing a college
I toured four different colleges in high school and came up with a list of several questions to ask when choosing a college. Some of the questions included information about on-campus housing, Disability Services, and how buildings and other services are organized. I would have loved to have my TVI’s input on what to look for in a college since they likely had several students in previous years that attended college and were successful in doing so. Even though they didn’t help with the college touring aspect, they did tell me which college on my list was the most likely to follow my accommodations. The college they recommended was my top choice school and the college I attend today!
Related links
- Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a College
- Ten More Questions to Ask When Choosing A College
- Ten Questions To Ask When Choosing A Virtual Class
- How To Schedule College Classes
- College Scheduling Hacks For Students With Chronic Illness
- How To Choose General Education Courses In College
- What If I Get Dropped From All My College Classes?
Orientation and Mobility skills
There were a lot of unknowns about my current level of usable vision in high school, and when/if my vision would continue to get worse as I got older. This is because I have both an eye condition and a brain condition that contribute to my low vision, the latter of which was not diagnosed until after I had graduated from high school. My TVI felt it was more important to focus on what I “know” about my vision instead of preparing for unknowns, and I didn’t receive any orientation and mobility (O&M instruction) until the summer after I graduated high school.
As a result of this experience, I started the Navigating College Campuses/College O&M post series to talk about using a blindness cane while living on a college campus, and different strategies I learned for campus navigation. I don’t blame my TVI for not prioritizing this since my school district didn’t have a COMS to teach these skills at the time, but I had very little experience navigating places by myself when I first arrived at college.
Related links
- Five Questions To Ask When Buying A Blindness Cane
- Dealing With Imposter Syndrome: College O&M
- Dealing With Paparazzi/Unwanted Attention: College O&M
- Navigating College Campuses/College O&M series
- Decoding The Colors of Blindness Canes
- School Cafeterias and Low Vision
How to get disability services in college
My TVI told me when I was a sophomore in high school that once I graduated from high school, I would have to figure out how I was going to get accommodations in college and that they couldn’t help me with that. This was surprising to several of my friends, since their TVIs had helped them get accommodations for college through their college Disability Services office, which can be a very confusing process. After learning about how helpful their TVIs had been in helping them gather documentation and selecting accommodations for the classroom, I was a little bit jealous of my friends who had received so much help, since I had to research everything on my own. On the bright side, I have since created a bunch of resources about navigating Disability Services in college that TVIs can share with their students and families.
Related links
- How To Explain Disability Accommodations To Professors
- How To Create A Disability Services File
- Eight Things You Need To Know About Your Disability Accommodations
- How To Get Disability Accommodations In Community College
- Math Test Accommodations For Low Vision
- Why You Should Get A Disability Services File
- Seven Unexpected Disability Accommodations For Virtual Learning
Requesting accessible materials and textbooks
My school district had extremely limited resources for assistive technology and supporting students with visual impairments, so there were many times that I didn’t have access to accessible materials and textbooks in the classroom. In college, I have had plentiful access to accessible materials and textbooks through the assistive technology department, which is something I am very thankful for. I wish that my TVI had taught me how to request accessible textbooks when needed and which formats to ask for, because when I had first requested an accessible copy of a textbook I had no clue what “accessible” looked like for me. It also would have been helpful to know the process for requesting materials in advance and asking for audio description or transcripts for videos when needed.
Related links
- What To Know About College Assistive Technology Specialists
- Behind The Scenes: How Bookshare Books Come To Life
- File Formats For Low Vision and Print Disabilities
- How I Find Research Sources In Accessible Formats
- How I Read Research Sources With Assistive Technology
- How To Request Accessible Textbooks In College
- Ten Questions To Ask When Buying Digital Textbooks
Selecting assistive technology
My TVI encouraged me to learn everything I could about assistive technology and would have me talk to them about things I read about online. Unfortunately, I did not have access to any physical devices such as video magnifiers that I could interact with in the classroom. When it came time for me to figure out what assistive technology I would need for college, I was very confused since I didn’t know which devices would work best for me or what my access needs were— I was so used to straining my eyes and masking my disability that I had no idea what really “worked” for me. This was especially true when I was researching text-to-speech software, since I had never used it before and would usually just strain my eyes to read instead. If I had been introduced to different types of assistive technology in high school, it would have helped me prepare to use it in college so I could focus on learning new material, not new technology.
Related links
- A to Z of Assistive Technology for Reading Digital Text
- A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
- How To Embrace Assistive Technology With Limited Funding
- Five Myths About Assistive Technology
- My Talk At A Future Date: What I Wish I Learned About AT Before Starting College
- What I Wish I Learned About Assistive Technology Before Starting Grad School
Disclosing disability in college applications
Should I tell my college that I have a visual impairment? This was a question I went back and forth about for several months. At the time, I did not have access to a TVI, so I wrote two essays for my college applications and submitted them both— one was on my vision loss, and another was on an unrelated topic. I figured out how to phrase things on my own, but I definitely wish that my TVI had helped me figure out how to disclose my disability in an academic and/or professional setting.
Related links
- Disclosing Disability In College Applications
- College Interview Tips For Disabled Students
- How I Respond To Questions/Comments About My Eyes
- How I Respond To Questions/Comments About My Glasses
Using Protection and Advocacy organizations
Before I got to college, there was an issue that demanded my immediate attention but that I could not handle on my own. I had just learned about Virginia’s Protection and Advocacy organization a few weeks after graduating from high school and decided to contact them. To make a long story short, they solved the problem within days of me contacting them. I remember being surprised that my TVI did not tell me about this wonderful, free service that was available to me and how they could help me with more complicated situations, and have since told every disabled student I know about how helpful these organizations can be when handling discrimination, housing issues, or other situations.
Related links
- My Experience With Disability Law Center of Virginia
- Learning to Self-Advocate
- Seeing The Future: College Transition for Visual Impairment
Receiving vocational rehabilitation
Two days before I graduated high school, the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired called my house and asked if I was graduating. My mom and I were very confused until they explained that they had randomly found my file from freshman year and noticed that I would be able to receive vocational rehabilitation services during college. One of the main things I wondered was “why didn’t I find out about this sooner?” Through vocational rehabilitation, I have been able to get assistance with purchasing assistive technology, ensuring that my college remains accountable with providing me services, and giving me access to a case manager who is knowledgeable about a variety of other state services.
Related links
- Vocational Rehabilitation for College Students
- Services Provided By State Department/State Unit for Visual Impairment
- US Government Programs For Blind/Low Vision Residents
Tips for gaining employment
I took a class in high school called Computer Information Systems that allowed students to receive Microsoft Office Specialist certifications as well as learn important skills for gaining meaningful employment such as job interview tips, how to fill out a job application, and practicing social skills such as making eye contact. Since people with visual impairments often have high unemployment rates, it is important for TVIs to ensure that their students have opportunities to learn these important job skills and practice them before they go in for their first job interview or fill out an application.
Related links
- Microsoft Office Specialist Certification and Low Vision
- Ten Skills I Learned During My High School Mentorship
- Mainstream Educational Technology Certifications For Teachers of the Visually Impaired
- Learning To Navigate My Internship Building: PM Intern With Low Vision
How to connect with other VI students
I was the only student identified with visual impairment in my school district and never met another student with low vision until I got to college. Since then, I have seen how valuable it is to hear another student’s experiences with low vision in college, and I wish my TVI would have allowed me to meet other students around my age with vision loss. I can’t exactly walk around the dining hall and find other students with tinted glasses or blindness canes, so I know that reading or listening to other student experiences would have been amazing when I was getting ready to start college.
Related links
- Questions To Ask Other Students With Low Vision
- How I Talk About Disability With New Friends
- How I Explain My Brain With Chiari Malformation
Related posts on Veronica With Four Eyes
- Ten Lessons My TVI Taught Me
- Eight Things I’m Glad My TVI Taught Me About Transition
- How My Guidance Counselor Helped Me As A Low Vision Student
- Five Things Your IEP Case Manager Won’t Tell You
Published April 5, 2019. Updated January 2025