Pre-Convention Workshop: Teaching Multilingual Learners with Visual Impairments

9:00A.M. – 12:00P.M. ET

Erika Fundelius MA, TVI, COMS, Doctoral Candidate at Florida State University

Erika is a teacher of students with visual impairments and certified orientation and mobility specialist. She has worked in education from preschool, K-5, and special education for over two decades. Erika is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Instruction, Visual disabilities at Florida State University. She is analyzing her survey data on TVIs' knowledge and understanding of self-determination to bring her dissertation to a conclusion. She is currently an instructor for FSU's visual disabilities program, and through her company Shades of Sight LLC, she provides O&M services to adult clients in Tallahassee, FL.  As an immigrant to the USA, therefore an English language learner herself, she has a unique personal experience that allows her to relate to students who are culturally and/or linguistically diverse. Erika was invited to Pasto, Colombia in September 2022 to deliver a keynote and provide a workshop at a conference at the University of Narino for foreign language teachers on inclusion and strategies related to instruction of students with disabilities.

1:00P.M. – 4:00P.M. ET

Cheryl Kamei-Hannan, Ph.D

Cheryl Kamei-Hannan, Ph.D. is a Professor and researcher at California State University, Los Angeles. A leading expert in the field of visual impairment and blindness, her research agenda focuses on language, literacy, and technology. She is co-author of Reading Connections: Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments, co-editor of the textbook, Foundations of Education (3rd Ed.), and co-contributor to the Assessment of Braille Literacy Skills: Unified English Braille (ABLS-UEB; 4th Ed.). Dr. Kamei-Hannan earned her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) at the University of Arizona with a specialization in Visual Impairment and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Special Education, along with credentials in Visual Impairment and Blindness and Orientation and Mobility from San Francisco State University. She has worked in the field of visual impairment and blindness for over twenty years as personnel preparation coordinator, researcher, reading specialist, middle school language arts classroom teacher, itinerant teacher, and a resource room teacher of students who are visually impaired.