CVI: A Brain-Based Visual Impairment

• Getting started with CVI Assessments 
• The Perkins CVI Protocol 
• Visual Assessment Scale: Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) In Persons with Profound Intellectual Disabilities (PIMD) 
• Dr. Gordon Dutton’s Visual Skills Inventory 
• Teach CVI Screening Tools 
• Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy’s CVI Range 
• Sensory Balance: An Approach to Learning Media Planning for Students with CVI 
• CVI Companion Guide To the Development Guidelines for Infants with Visual Impairments:  Appendix B 
• Vision and the Brain: Understanding Cerebral Visual Impairment in Children Chapters 10-18 

Websites on CVI

• American Foundation for the Blind: Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Neurological Vision Loss 
•  CVI Scotland 
• Paths to Literacy: CVI and Literacy 
• Perkins: CVI Now  
• Roman CVI Resources 
• Strategies to See 

• Considerations for Educating Students With CVI: The Learning Environment 
• Strategy To See: Strategies for Students with Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment 
• Cortical Visual Impairment: Advanced Principles 
• Vision and the Brain: Understanding Cerebral Visual Impairment in Children 
• Cortical Visual Impairment: An Approach to Assessment and Intervention, 2nd Edition 
• CVI Companion Guide To the Development Guidelines for Infants with Visual Impairments 

• 2023-24 TVI Time: Spotlight on CVI - Coming in October 2024! 
• CVI: Identification, Assessment and Intervention, 2020  
• CVI Spring Training Past the Basics, 2016  

• Perkins e-learning (Filter by topic: CVI) 
• APH Hive (Search by title: CVI or Search by subject Tag; Cerebral Visual Impairment) 

• The Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Education of Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired (PACES – BVI): Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI), June 2023 
• Policy Paper by the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Neurological Visual Impairment Division (Div. 20): Roles and Responsibilities of Vision Educators (TVIS and O&MS) When Learners Have CVI, June 2020 

CVI is a brain-based visual impairment that is due to an injury to the brain. Students with CVI can also have eye-based conditions and/or eye-motor disorders that exist alongside their CVI.  

For some students with CVI, vision gets better over time, but this is not the case for all. Each student is unique and even with educational intervention, there is no guarantee that their visual performance will improve.  However, interventions based on the visual behaviors seen in students with, or suspected of having CVI, can help maximize their functional vision. Additional skills and supports such as braille and assistive technology should be considered for each student. Many interventions can be implemented and supported by a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments in collaboration with the rest of the educational team. 

Although the National Institute of Health is currently focusing on streamlining information around CVI, there is as of yet no standard common language in use for this condition. Therefore, some assessments and information might refer to CVI visual behaviors, others to Characteristics of CVI and yet others to Manifestations of CVI . Although different terminology is used, the same common visual aspects of CVI are addressed by all.

Students with CVI have unique learning needs that differ in complexity from students with only an eye-based visual impairment. Students who have been diagnosed by a medical professional or are suspected of having CVI must be assessed by a TVI with a functional vision assessment that includes testing in the visual areas of CVI as part of the educational evaluation process.

For more information about CVI refer to the resource Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)  developed by The Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Education of Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired (PACES – BVI)  This resource relates to preferred Pennsylvania practices and provision of services by appropriately credentialed professionals for students with visual impairments. 

 

Examples of Different CVI Terminology