By Kristin Oien, Blind/Visually-Impaired Specialist, Minnesota Department of Education

(Editor’s Note: This presentation was given at the Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota on November 6, 2010.)

 Good morning!

Thank you so much for inviting me to your 90th Annual National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota Conference. Before I begin, I have a special shout out for Dave Andrews, who received the 2010 C. Stanley Potter Lifetime Achievement Award. Dave and Ken Trebelhorn have assisted with our Assistive Technology Loan Project and I wanted to personally thank them.

My name is Kristin Oien; I am the new Minnesota Department of Education State Specialist for the Blind and Visually Impaired. After telling you a little bit about myself, I’d like to outline my vision and goals for this school year, share current data regarding blind youth in Minnesota, and lastly I would like to brainstorm ways that students across the state can become more involved and connected with successful blind mentors and the blind community.

I have been a teacher of the visually impaired for over 20 years and a certified orientation and mobility specialist for over ten years. I received both my degrees from San Francisco State University, and completed my student teaching at the Society for the Blind in Sacramento, and the Elk Grove Unified School District in California. Before accepting this position with the Minnesota Department of Education, I was part of a diagnostic testing team for blind, deaf-blind, and deaf and hard of hearing students out of the Hawaii School for the Deaf and the Blind in Honolulu. Prior to that, I was the State Specialist for the Visually Impaired for the State of Hawaii Department of Education. My husband of 18 years was born in Milaca, Minnesota — hence the Minnesota connection — and we have a 15 year old daughter who is a freshman at Irondale High School.

As the MDE BVI Specialist, I am responsible for providing support, training and technical assistance to teachers of the visually impaired, orientation & mobility specialists, and other stakeholders who provide services to students with disabilities and their families. Along with being the Director of the BVI Resource Center in Faribault, I am also the American Printing house for the Blind Ex Officio Trustee for the State of Minnesota MDE.

Our vision at MDE is that all children get necessary support for healthy development and lifelong learning. The special education policy division’s mission is to provide leadership to ensure a high quality education for all Minnesota’s children and youth with disabilities.

My main focus this year has been to listen and learn about how services to students with visual impairments are delivered in Minnesota, while at the same time gathering information regarding strengths and needs within the field. A survey is currently being developed that will be used to plan professional development, training and mentoring opportunities throughout the state. Another focus of mine is to assist with making the tasks of the teachers of the visually impaired more efficient and productive. During the last four months, we have developed and implemented an on-line ordering process for all APH orders, eliminating time consuming paper mailing, and saving a few trees in the process. We will also be conducting the APH census electronically for the first time this year, again, eliminating the need for paper exchange. Another recent productive change has been to establish a listserv that braillists and tactile graphics producers can access to share questions, information, ideas and training opportunities.

I have also met with all but one of the Low Incidence Facilitators at their regional offices and attended many regional BVI meetings to gain firsthand knowledge about each area of the state and the special circumstances and situations they face. I have learned that the challenges and service delivery models from the metro area, to outstate greater Minnesota are extremely unique; and that in this current climate of economic challenge and political change, we will need to be creative and think outside the box for current needs to be met.

Currently the 2009 MDE Unduplicated Child Count indicates there are 427 blind and visually impaired students in Minnesota. However, the American Printing House for the Blind Federal Census indicates there are 785 BVI students. The disparity in these numbers comes from the MDE child count only indicating the primary eligibility category as BVI, while the APH census takes into account multiply impaired students who are also blind.

The APH Primary Reading Medium data indicates that there are 48 auditory, 69 braille, 121 visual or large print, 213v pre-readers, and 334 non-readers in the state. These numbers should be taken with caution, as they were collected by APH for purposes of material production – not educational status. I have included them to show that multihandicapped BVI students make up between 40 -60% of BVI teacher caseloads.

Most of us here today are aware that nationally there is a shortage of qualified professionals in the blindness field, a lack of ability to track national outcomes for blind students, and the staggering unemployment rates of blind working age adults. But I want to share something very important with you; the teachers of the visually impaired and orientation & mobility specialists in Minnesota did not go through 4 years of college and 2 – 4 years of graduate school to enter the field of teaching the blind to become wealthy and live a life of luxury.

One of my first impressions from my first weeks of work in Minnesota was how dedicated and devoted the BVI teachers and mobility specialists were. Minnesota is fortunate to have a wealth of experienced and knowledgeable professionals in the field who are willing to take the time to meet together in small community of practice groups to focus on targeted issues of student need and develop creative ways to meet those needs. I am truly excited to be working with such a diverse and dedicated group of professionals and I am hopeful that we can work together with stakeholders like you across the state to develop collaborative, viable opportunities for our blind students. NFB and MDE have come together to share information and resources, I have posted information regarding NFB Saturday School, Teen Nights, Summer Programs and Scholarship opportunities on the MDE BVI Listserv, and last month NFB and MDE worked collaboratively to host a Transition Fair.

Yesterday at our second statewide vision network meeting, representatives from the American Council of the Blind of Minnesota shared information and resources which will also be posted to the BVI listserv.

It is my overall goal that blind and visually impaired youth in Minnesota receive quality instruction that will lead to their independence and success. I have told O&M university students that I have supervised in the past, that the mark of a good cane user was their ability to switch cane techniques to meet the changes in their environment and that it was the O&M instructors’ responsibility to provide good instruction so the students would have a repertoire of skill sets to choose from.

Thank you so much for your time today, and I want you to know that I welcome suggestions for effective change. Please feel free to contact me with concerns or ideas for the future.

My email address is Kristin.Oien@state.mn.us

My telephone number is 651-582-8843