Outreach Services
With more than 130 years of experience educating the blind and visually impaired, the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children’s Outreach Program provides vital information, consultation and direct services to hundreds of visually impaired students, agencies, school districts, intermediate units and families throughout the region. The program is dedicated to helping parents and educators make a real, tangible impact on the quality of education of students with visual impairments throughout western Pennsylvania.
WPSBC Outreach Offers:
- Direct Services — Early Intervention Home- or Center-Based
- CVI Clinic
- Vision Enhancement Center — Vision Assistive Tech Evaluation
- Early Intervention Assessment
- Direct Service for Visually Impaired Students in Their Home or District
- Lending Library
- Staff Development Opportunities
- Consult Services
- Multi-Disciplinary Evaluations with:
- Teacher of the Visually Impaired
- Orientation and Mobility Instructor
- Occupational Therapist
- Speech/Language Pathologist
- Physical Therapist
- Behavior Specialist
How the School for Blind Children Can Help:
- Consultative support for planning appropriate programming
- Functional vision evaluation or CVI Range Assessment
- Vision Assistive Technology evaluation
- Braille instruction
- IEP recommendations
- Orientation and Mobility evaluations and services
- Independent living skills instruction
- Program and staff development seminars
- Multi-disciplinary evaluation
- Learning media assessment
- Direct service
Services to Schools and Intermediate Units
The Outreach Program offers a comprehensive developmental assessment provided on our Oakland campus free of charge to Pennsylvania families of children who are legally blind or have suspected blindness. A qualified team comprised of a teacher of the visually impaired, occupational therapist, physical therapist and speech/language pathologist conduct a thorough, play-based evaluation of the child and then recommend appropriate activities to promote development.
Educational sessions and other consults are offered to help address issues relevant to rearing a child with a vision impairment. When available, materials may be borrowed from our Lending Library.
Fully funded by the School, there is no charge to families for these evaluations on our campus. Additionally, we provide direct vision and/or orientation and mobility services for children from birth to age 21.
All resources, consultation and evaluations are provided at no cost, with no additional administrative fees.
Contact Holly Russell Director of Outreach Services, to learn more about our Outreach Program at 412-621-0100 ext. 1280 or email [email protected].