Kate Williams

ISU- SPED 651

Assignment 3.2 #2
March 27, 2017

Student Description:
Laura Turner is a sixteen year old female who is entering the 10th grade. She has vision loss
secondary to Retinitis Pigmentosa. This affects her acuity, light sensitivity, visual field, and
night vision. Her visual acuities and visual field has remained about the same for a few years.
She currently has distance acuities of 20/80 (OD) and 20/60 (OS) with correction (CC). She
presents with a severe restriction of her visual field. In her right eye (OD), she has around 5
degrees of visual field remaining and in her left eye (OS), she has around 10-12 degrees of visual
field remaining.
Her visual perception is further reduced in the presence of poor lighting, shadows, and fast
moving objects. She suffers from night blindness as a result.
Her eyes often fatigue after a period of visual focusing required in school work and on the
computer and needs breaks to rest. She currently uses the following assistive technologies:
CCTV, task lighting, electronic magnifier, handheld magnifier. She has the following
accommodations: large print, preferential seating, and uncluttered copies of assignments. Her
computer has been adjusted with the following accommodations: large print, background color
contrast, and large print keyboard.
Her preferred sensory modality is primarily visual. However, she is also a strong auditory
learner.
She is currently receiving O&M services 80 minutes/month and braille services 2x/week.

Assessments:
Near Vision Acuity:
I would use the Near Vision Chart. This is a board that has a string attached so it can be placed
16 inches away from the face. The student will read the line of letters that is at a font
comfortable for them and then work their way down until they reach frustration or to the end.
Laura’s age combined with her cognitive skills make this assessment appropriate for her.
Distance Vision Acuity:
I would use The Original Distance Test Chart for the Partially Sighted by Feinbloom. This is a
test where the assessor stands 10 feet away from the student and holds up pages of numbers
starting at 10/700 and working toward smaller fonts until the student reaches frustration or the
end of the test. Because Laura is 16 years with average cognitive skills, this assessment should
be appropriate and give correct information.
Central Vision:
I would use the Amsler Grid for this assessment to see if there are any defects in her remaining
central vision. This assessment determines if there are any missing or distorted parts of her
central vision. This test would be appropriate based on Laura’s cognitive, fine motor, and
developmental skills.
Tracking:
I would use the King Devick Eye Movement Assessment to see if there are any issues with
tracking along lines of varying clutter and spacing. This assessment determines if the student’s
eyes move appropriately and track well. This assessment would be appropriate based on Laura’s
age, background knowledge, and cognitive skills.
Peripheral Vision:
I would use a pointer stick and a ball. I would have Laura face the wall in front of her while I
stood behind her with a pointer stick. I would instruct her to tell me when she saw the pointer
stick in any area of her peripheral. I would mark the degree in which she saw it and how far
away the stick was from her closest eye. I would then use a ball and roll it from behind her to
see the point in which she can see in her inferior peripheral vision. This would be an appropriate
test due to her age and cognitive level.
Contrast:
I would use the Hiding Heidi Contrast Test to measure the student’s ability to see varying
contrast levels. I would stand 10 feet away from Laura while holding the board with the lowest
contrast at 1.25% and ask her to tell me what she sees on the board. I would continue increasing
contrast cards until she can ID the face on the board. This would be appropriate based on
Laura’s cognitive levels.

Clutter:
I would use a picture book with a red dot on each page that has varying pages of clutter. I would
instruct Laura to tell me when she sees a red dot on each page and I would flip the pages for her
so that I could get an accurate idea on how quickly she can discern in varying levels of contrast.
This would be appropriate based on Laura’s age and ability level.
Color Vision:
I would use the Quick 6 Color Plates Test with Laura. This identifies if a student has typical
color vision, red-green color blindness, or blue-yellow color blindness. I would show her the
demo plate and ask her to tell me what she sees. Typically, a student would see a number in the
middle of the dots in a different color. If there is some color blindness, they may only see one of
the two number or they may not see anything at all. This assessment would be appropriate given
Laura’s age and cognitive skills.
Writing Fluency:
I would use the WOLD Copying Test on this assessment. This assessment determines how
quickly a student can copy a passage a different fonts as well as how many writing errors they
make and how close they need to hold their head from the page. This test would be appropriate
based on Laura’s age and cognitive skills.

Expected Outcomes:
Near Vision Acuity:
The expected outcome for Laura’s near vision acuity would be right around the 20/80 line for
both eyes (OU) with correction (CC). For a student with typical near vision, they would be able
to see around the 20/20 line.
Distance Vision Acuity:
Laura has a distance vision with correction (CC) of 20/80 in her right eye (OD) and 20/60 in her
left eye (OS). The expected outcome for Laura’s distance vision acuity would be right around
the 20/80 to 20/60 or better when using both eyes together.
Central Vision:
Laura has around 5 degrees of visual field in her central vision in her right eye (OD) and 10-12
degrees in her left eye (OS). However, in her left eye, she was unable to detect the required
target in her Low Vision Exam. The expected outcome of this assessment is a central vision that
is very restricted in her right eye and no discernible identification of visual cues in her left eye.
Tracking:
Because of her reduced visual field, Laura most likely will have to move her whole head to track
and see the entire tracking board. She will have to expend more focus and energy to track, which
will slow her speed down and likely cause errors. Her expected outcome would be a tracking
speed and error number well below average for her age.
Peripheral Vision:
Laura has around 5 degrees of visual field in her right eye (OS) and around 10-12 degrees in her
left eye (OS). However, she was unable to use her remaining visual field in her left eye well
even though there is more degrees of vision. The expected outcome of this test is Laura being
unable to see the pointer until it is around 10 degrees temporally, superiorly, and inferiorly.
Contrast:
Laura requires optimal lighting to see images clearly. Shadows and poor lighting significantly
reduce her visual perception. Under typical florescent overhead lighting in a classroom, she will
most likely see with a contrast that is less than what she may need in a dim environment or one
that has several shadows or lots of clutter.
Clutter:
Laura struggles with finding information in high clutter due to her low visual field along with
lack of color vision. The expected outcome of this assessment is that she would struggle in
viewing moderate and high clutter environments or in environments of the same or similar colors
on a page.
Color Vision:
Laura is already labeled with color blindness, so I would expect that she would not be able to
identify any of the numbers on the plates regardless of the colors presented.
Writing Fluency:
Due to Laura’s slow tracking skills along with her reduced visual field, I would expect that
Laura’s copying speed would be greatly below average for her grade level. I would also predict
a high level of errors in her copying.