Supporting Students with CVI Through Technology:

color, high contrast, and motion to facilitate visual recognition.” Understanding these visual and behavioral characteristics is the first step (Roman-Lantzy, 2018). Acting on them, consistent- ly and in collaboration with the full team, is where real change begins. In the sections ahead, I will highlight how educators are using tools like CViConnect PRO not to replace their judgment, but to sharpen it by better understanding how each student sees and responds. PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION: WHAT TEACHERS ARE DOING THAT WORKS Supporting a student with CVI often means adapting not just what we teach, but how we present it, when we present it, and under what conditions. The educators I work with are constantly adjusting these variables, and CViConnect PRO has become one of the tools helping them do that with more clarity and purpose. First, the team must do a functional vision evaluation con- sisting of a record review, parent interview, observation, and direct assessment (Roman-Lantzy, 2018). For students with CVI, vision professionals often rely on widely used tools such as the CVI Range or the Perkins CVI Protocol to guide this process. Both are designed to identify how a student with CVI uses their vision functionally and to guide appropriate accommodations and in- structional strategies. Teams can use the activities provided and data collected from CViConnect PRO to help reflect on the stu- dent’s level of functional vision.

After this information is gathered, the team can begin build- ing their schedule of interventions that align the activity design to a student’s known visual behaviors. For example, a teacher might create a red, high-contrast target placed consistently in the right visual field to support a learner with color and field preference. While this sounds simple, having a platform that allows for precise control of color, size, and positioning makes a difference, especially when visual complexity is a barrier. The CViConnect PRO Activity Designer allows professionals to make these adaptations as needed. Within the platform, a teacher could easily adapt this same activity to a different color or add movement for another child to meet their visual and behavioral characteristics. What makes these adaptations effective is the ability to ob- serve what works and adjust when it doesn’t. That’s where visual attention data becomes valuable. Using the iPad’s front camera, CViConnect PRO estimates where and when a student appears to look at a target on the screen. This measurement helps teams reflect on visual engagement patterns without requiring spe- cialized cameras or eye-tracking equipment. Teachers can re- view a session and see, in seconds, whether a student looked at a target, how long they sustained attention, and whether visual latency was a factor. With that information, teams can continue to fine-tune instructional materials.

One early childhood teacher shared, “ I had been using the same photograph of a familiar object across multiple sessions, thinking it was a good visual accommodation. But when I reviewed the look data, I realized my student never actually looked at it for more than a second or two. I swapped it for one with the back- ground removed, and used the drawing board feature to highlight some features. We saw immediate changes, not just in the data, but in his engagement. ” Carly Schlotterer, a TVI, reflected on the broader impact: “ The data helped me show progress, justify visual accommoda- tions, and even demonstrate growth during my professional eval- uation. It also made classroom staff more accountable for daily visual access. ”

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