Supporting Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Highlighting Education Professionals and Strategies for Students With Visual Impairments, Blindness, and Deafblindness

In 2023, the American Community Survey (ACS) identified approximately 625,000 children between the ages of 0 and 17 years old in the United States with a vision difficulty, which ACS defined as those that are blind or have trouble seeing even with glasses (American Foundation for the Blind [AFB], 2025). The National Center on Deafblindness (2025) reported that in 2023, 10,649 children ages 0 to 22, including those served in states that extend services through the school year in which a child turns 22, were eligible to receive state project deafblind services. However, it is important to note that in 2022 under IDEA Section 618, only 25,000 children were identified as visually impaired for their primary disability, and approximately 2,000 children were identified with deafblindness as their primary disability (AFB, 2025). In addition, approximately 50% of students with a visual impairment have an additional disability and are identified as having another disability instead of visual impairment for the federal Child Count census (Schles, 2021). These discrepancies highlight the ongoing challenges in accurately identifying and reporting children with sensory disabilities and providing adequate services (Gaber & Huebner, 2017; Hatton et al., 2013; Schles, 2021).