Rachel Schles - Blindness/Visually Impairment - University of Pittsburgh 

Rachel Schles is a doctoral student in the Vision Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.  Her primary research interests focuses on how students with visual impairments and/or deafblindness are initial identified for special education services, as well as how differences in each states’ special education eligibility criteria for the “visual impairments, including blindness” IDEA category has created a public health crisis in the United States as students are receiving services based on the state they live in and not the degree of their visual impairment.  Rachel regularly conducts in-service trainings and conference sessions for teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) on how to collect appropriate data (functional vision, learning media, and expanded core curriculum assessments), and then interpret the data into meaningful IEP goals and individualized instruction in the expanded core curriculum (ECC) for students with visual impairments, including students with multiple disabilities or deafblindness.

Prior to joining NLCSD, Rachel worked as an itinerant teacher of students with visual impairments in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia. During her time in Virginia, Rachel placed an emphasis on collaborating with other TVIs in her district to develop consist, high quality assessments for students with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities or deafblindness. Rachel was a founding member of the vision program’s first Parent Outreach Committee, continually searching for ways to help families with limited English proficiency learn more about the special education process so that they could advocate for their children’s needs.

Rachel received a MEd. in Visual Disabilities at Vanderbilt University, and a BA in History at Vassar College.  Rachel was named CEC Division on Visual Impairments and Deafblindness Teacher of the Year (2016).