Irene Topor - Adjunct Associate Professor


Ph.D., University of Arizona

Teaching: Functional vision assessment, Vision impairment and multiple disabilities

Irene Topor, Ph.D., is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology. She teaches two courses; Low Vision and Visual Functioning and Methods of Teaching Students with Visual Impairment. Both of these courses are offered online for the first time during the 2000-2001 academic school for students enrolled in the Nevada distance education program. Irene also coordinates/supervises student practica and internship in the Visual Impairment Specialization Program in Tucson and Nevada. She provides technical assistance to community schools for teachers and parents who wish assistance with assessment and instruction for children who have visual and multiple impairments. Irene has provided inservice training for adult service providers and parents and conducted individual functional vision assessments for children served by sensory impairment (e.g., deafblind) projects in the United States, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, California, Indiana, Idaho and Wisconsin. She is currently a national instructor with the Utah State University Ski Hi Institute VIISA (Vision In-service in America) Project and works with Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana and more recently Nebraska in delivering the VIISA courses within their states. Irene authored and coauthored chapters on functional vision assessment of young children who have visual and multiple impairments and teamwork in educational settings for American Foundation for the Blind Publishing Company and Lighthouse for the Blind in New York. A chapter about Native Americans who have visual impairments will be published in the near future. Irene's research interests include the development of a model demonstration project in low vision through the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation for the Navajo Indian reservation. The project will focus on the indigenous belief system of the benefits and challenges of introducing optical devices to children of a diverse culture.