Have an interview!! I need your wisdom

[lisad123]

Ok, panic has set in now I have an interview! It's for a job with a young man with visual difficulties, so I'm assuming blind or nearly blind (paper work isn't clear).

It's a job I would love, and would like to thinkninwould be good at. I have the equal opportunities down, the child's voice down and respectful listening. I get all of that. I'm struggling with the practical stuff.
How's best to support in clasroom, best positions, likelyhood of extra difficulties, ect ect.
Child is year 7 so not that young, and I'm sure would like to be as independent as possible and would like to aid that.

Any advice and help would be great.
For those not clear, I have two girls with autism, one has sensory processing the other has auditry processing difficulties and both have mobility issues. I'm trained to work with children, and have spent last 9 years in social care type roles but before that was in EBD unit.

Tia

again no advice but good luck wishes.

Ask them why he's not on the interview panel (if he's not).

I can only tell you about my dd3 she has some useful vision and is much younger than this lad. Lighting is key, for her daylight is very important, strip lights give her headaches and her vision drops, she takes a lot longer for eyes to adjust when going from inside to outside and the other way round so a prime time for accidents. Glare is another massive issue, whether that be from lights shining on objects on the table or computer screens, and smart boards are a massive no, she just can't see them however close she sits. Blowing an a4 sheet up to a3 on a photocopier isn't acceptable, you lose definition of the print and the size of paper is too large to track across.

Dd3's 1:1 tells her when she arrives and leaves as she can't see if she's stayed in the room or gone out. She needs someone to keep an eye out for bags on the floor, chair legs sticking out etc. Social difficulties from missing out on visual social cues, dinner halls and break times can be a nightmare, so probably a lot more transferable skills than you may think.

He should be getting support from a QTVI (qualified teacher of the visually impaired) who work like the asd out reach teams who should be able to give you a lot more specific info for him. He probably already has many really good coping strategies which may mean that people massively misread what his strengths and weaknesses are so knowing what really works or doesn't work for him is really important. There's loads more but I've spent the last 2 days in school with dd3 and my head feels about ready to explode

good luck!

Dd has pmld and cvi is one of her issues, she has a visual field map of strengths and weaknesses which may be worth mentioning, positioning of materials is very important. Use of IT to help. I've been to a lot of meetings with the LA recently, increasing independence is a huge thing, perhaps allowing him to travel by an alternative route once he's confident (if appropriate).