The following announcement was provided by Perkins School for the Blind:
Perkins recently launched Perkins Academy, an online continuing education and professional development platform for educators, dedicated to unlocking learning for children with disabilities. The natural extension of Perkins’ mission to help students with disabilities find their place in the world, Perkins Academy will offer remote, on-demand learning opportunities for educators.
With 95 percent of students with disabilities in public schools, there’s an increased demand to share Perkins know-how across the country with public and private school teachers. Perkins Academy will deliver highly specialized training to educators that goes beyond the resources of many public schools. This past year, Perkins’ Watertown campus educated over 200 students locally, and over 1,000 across the state. The online learning modules will help disseminate the knowledge gained from their work in Massachusetts to teachers and families.
“The launch of Perkins Academy is a significant step in furthering our mission of reaching the 240 million children across the world with visual impairments and complex disabilities,” said Dave Power, President and CEO of Perkins. “For over 100 years, Perkins has played an important role in teaching educators across more than 90 countries. This is a natural extension of our work that will provide a one-of-a-kind resource for those in the inclusiveeducation space.”
Beginning in the area of most need, Perkins Academy launched with a four-course program, the Perkins CVI Certificate. Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of visual impairment in children in developed countries, impacting up to 1 in 30 children in public school classrooms. Unlike other visual impairments, CVI is brain-based, rather than ocular, and no two people with CVI experience the world in the same way. The complexity of CVI, and educating students with CVI, requires new training for teachers of the visually impaired. The Perkins CVI Certificate from Perkins Academy consists of four courses: Understanding the Impact of CVI; Assessing Students with CVI; Selecting CVI Interventions; and Planning Instruction for Students with CVI.
Following today’s initial rollout, Perkins Academy will continue to expand its course offerings in other areas of need, such as braille literacy, and making technology accessible to people with visual impairments. Those interested can access courses at PerkinsAcademy.org, all of which are self-paced and available on-demand, with an assessment at the end of each to certify learnings. The initial four course CVI Certificate totals 55 hours/PDPs for educators seeking professional development opportunities.
About Perkins
Perkins helps children with disabilities find their place in the world. The global leader in education services for children and young adults with disabilities for almost 200 years, Perkins seeks to make quality learning accessible to the 240 million children with disabilities around the world through teacher training, modeling education best practices, and innovating to create new approaches. As an international NGO, Perkins is infinitely innovating to solve longstanding and emerging problems facing its communities, students, and families.