Professional Ethics for Vision Professionals

Professional Ethics

As with all professions, Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments will face ethical dilemmas and need to use personal and professional standards to handle these issues. Each person has their code of ethics based on their set of beliefs and standards they use to guide their life.

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
Revised May 16, 2017

Ethical Principles

How people respond to ethical dilemmas is governed by their internal belief system. A professional code of ethics guides professional practice. The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), has a code of ethics for educators of persons with special needs that can be found in their Ethical Principle and Practice Standards.

Principles include:

maintaining challenging expectations;
a high level of professional competence;
promoting inclusion;
practicing collegiality;
developing respectful relationships with families;
using evidence-based instruction;
ensuring safety;
practicing within professional ethics and standards;
advocating for professional conditions;
engaging in improvement of the profession; and
participating in the growth and dissemination of professional knowledge and skills.

Code of Ethics

AER established and adopted a code of ethics in 1992 for teachers of students with visual impairments, O&M specialists, rehabilitation teachers, and low vision therapists that can be found in the appendix section of Foundations of Education, Volume 1. The Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments Code of Ethics addresses:

Commitment to Persons Served,
Commitment to Community,
Commitment to the Profession,
Commitment to Colleagues,
Fellow Professionals and the Professional Employer.

Persons who are certified to practice any of these professions must follow the specific code of ethics for their specialization.

Ethical Dilemmas

Ethical dilemmas will most likely be encountered throughout a professional’s career. When faced with an ethical dilemma, Kay Holbrook and Alan Koenig suggest the following strategies within Foundations of Education, Vol. 1, History and Theory of Teaching Children and Youths with Visual Impairments (PP. 263-264):

Do what is right for all students based on their individual needs and focus on these needs in everything you do.
Serve as an advocate for the student and his or her family.
Be a professional, not an employee.
Do not accept or condone the practice of allowing nonqualified persons or paraeducators to perform a teacher’s duties.
Advocate continually for high-quality and expanded services for students who are visually impaired.

Following a carefully defined professional code of ethics and applying it throughout one’s professional life helps to ensure that the education offered to children and youths with disabilities is of the highest quality and that improvements are continually sought.”
-Koenig & Holbrook, Foundations of Education, Vol. 1 p. 262

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ECC Complete Set Bonus

Purchase the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC Complete Set and immediately unlock the pages within the ECC Complete Set Bonus including bonus printables, interactive sensory stories, interactive matching activities, interactive choice making activities, job task box activities and MORE! This is my way of continuing to support you and say "Thank you!" for choosing to purchase the Complete Set.

TVI's Guide Complete Set Bundle + BONUS Resources

$200.00 $100.00

Buy together and get BONUS resources!

The TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC Complete Set includes the following:

TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired (a 346 page pdf download)
Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets: TVI's Guide to the ECC Grab and Go Supplements (a 210 page pdf download)
Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Worksheets: A TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC Grab & go Supplement (a 338 page pdf download)
Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists: Grab & Go ECC Supplement (a 446 page pdf download)
NEW!Interactive Sensory Stories page access and booklet of activities!

BONUS!

Lotto Cards

The LOTTO Cards Grab and Go Supplement includes 37 theme related unit cards along with activity suggestions that support activities within the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC.

On My Way File Folder Cards

Print and use these cards to represent locations the student may visit that are related to the current thematic unit. Use these with the On My Way File Folder Game outlined in the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC p. 27.

NEW! Access to TVI's Guide Bonus Membership Pages

Bonus pages include tutorials, printables, interactive sensory story downloads, and interactive choice making, matching and visual discrimination computer games (PowerPoint based interactive games), and job task activities.

Note:

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