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The teaching children with visual impairments and orientation and mobility for children program is a collaborative program between the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies in WMU's College of Health and Human Services and the Department of Special Education and Literacy Studies in the College of Education and Human Development. This program prepares students interested in working as a teacher of children with visual impairments or orientation and mobility specialist with children, or a dual program of both teacher of children with visual impairments and orientation and mobility. The focus in these programs is on the specific skills required for helping children with visual impairments to learn to lead full and productive lives. Many choose to become dual-certified as both a teacher of children with visual impairments and an orientation and mobility specialist for children. This combination helps the professional understand and meet the total needs of the child. The combination is also in high demand in primarily rural areas, where the number of children with visual impairments is too low to employ professionals separately educated in each area. Teachers of children with visual impairments, orientation and mobility specialists for children and dual-specialists work primarily in public schools and residential schools for children with visual impairments. Personnel shortages exist in most states in the nation for people educated in these areas.
