Curious about studying Vision Rehabilitation Specialist (Adults) - FdScat Birmingham City University? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Foundation
City South Campus, Edgbaston
Part Time
Sep 2027
2 Year
Vision impairment is a life changing experience and very often you will be working with people who are at a crisis point in their lives. A Vision Rehabilitation Specialist’s strength is to be a problem solver and to respond to a person's unique and complex situation. You will develop individual training courses for people based on their individual needs and aspirations.
Your initial learning focuses on the individual and the impacts of vision impairment on all aspects of life. You will look at how to work in partnership with your clients and their families, and how to work inter-professionally to promote the needs of those experiencing sight loss.
You will also learn how to enable people with a vision impairment to become independent in their daily lives. This may be through teaching orientation and mobility skills, safety and independence in the kitchen and the home, techniques to overcome communication barriers and making the best use of a person's strengths and any remaining vision.
You will attend our City South Campus in Edgbaston for block learning weeks that are spread throughout each academic year. During these weeks you will take part in lectures, simulation sessions and a range hands on group activities on this practical course.
You will benefit from learning from an experienced teaching team and specialists from the sector as well as using our specialist resource rooms and training kitchens. In between teaching weeks, you will be able to access extensive online materials and take part in valuable work-based learning placements.
A qualified Vision Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) requires knowledge and skills to interpret the impact of vision impairment on the person. It is vital that practitioners are able to conduct a specialist assessment to ascertain a person’s needs and aspirations to agree vision rehabilitation interventions. Teaching sessions will explore the potential psychological impact of vision impairment and consider how relevant theories and concepts relate to practice. You will examine how the eye works and how vision impairment impacts on the seeing process. You will learn about what a person may be able to see in their daily lives in a range of environments. The module has two items of assessment. Firstly, there is a written assignment in which you will consider a case study of a person with a vision impairment. You will focus on the impact of the condition on how the eye works and you will explore how concepts may support understanding of the emotional impact on the person and their support networks. The second item of assessment will observe your skills in delivering part of a specialist vision rehabilitation assessment.
This core module is a key part of the FdSc Vision Rehabilitation Specialist course. Many people who are living with a vision impairment have challenges with their orientation and mobility. Some people may have lost their confidence to travel independently. Others may be at significant risk even in familiar environments. This introductory orientation and mobility module aims to introduce you to the skills and procedures used to teach orientation and mobility to people with vision impairment. It presents the essential techniques and a body of knowledge constituting the orientation and mobility discipline. Orientation and mobility instruction is individualised, and the techniques and procedures can and should be adapted to meet the needs of individuals.
This core module is a key part of the FdSc Vision Rehabilitation Specialist Course. Building upon the initial your indoor orientation and mobility skills and techniques learned in semester one, this is your second sequential module. The module will introduce further technical mobility skills. You will start with complex indoor routes and transition to outdoor travel. Strategies for orientation, use of senses, minimising risk and adapting to uncontrollable outdoor environments will be covered. In line with the programme aims and philosophy, competence in teaching orientation and mobility to a diverse range of people who have severe vision impairment is fundamental to the role of the Vision Rehabilitation Specialist. It is essential for the well-being of individuals with vision impairment that they can travel as safely and independently as possible in their environment.
Enabling people who have a vision impairment to be independent is a key part of the role of the Vision Rehabilitation specialist. This module focuses on introducing daily living skills to enable independence in the kitchen and home and with devices to facilitate communication. Training kitchens will be utilised to support the learning of adaptive approaches to pour and make hot and cold drinks as well as prepare food using spreading, slicing and chopping techniques. Sessions will also consider various methods in using a landline telephone, telling the time, identifying money and enabling the identification of items around the home. In addition, learners will be introduced to grade one braille and ways to facilitate learning. Combined with these approaches, sessions will discuss how learning and teaching theories and concepts may be applied to enhance the vision rehabilitation teaching interventions.
Vision Rehabilitation Specialists are required to teach independent living skills in complex environments around the kitchen and home. This module builds on learning from the semester one Independent Living Skills module. You will use the training kitchens to enhance approaches to pouring and food preparation skills and work towards cooking meals. Sessions will introduce learners to how to use the hob, oven and other kitchen cooking equipment safely and effectively when working with people who have a vision impairment. Learners will experience being taught these skills and teaching these skills to one another when using sleep shades and simulation spectacles. Tutors will work closely with learners to facilitate the development of these skills and offer feedback on progress.
A vital element of the development and training of a Vision Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) is to apply their knowledge, skills and behaviours within a work-based learning setting. To facilitate this approach all learners will complete a minimum of 40 days within a statutory or non-statutory organisation that supports people who have a vision impairment. These experiences will offer the opportunity to interact with people who have a vision impairment and work shadow and joint work with a range of practitioners within the sector. This module will not be taught during block learning weeks and will draw upon teaching from all year one modules. You will create evidence from the workplace experiences to demonstrate knowledge and skills taught in the year one modules.
Professional Practice is a diverse module designed to prepare you for independent practice and beyond. The module is designed to equip you to be part of the vision rehabilitation workforce in line with Birmingham City University’s mission for 2030. This module will provide opportunities to explore the contemporary professional field of vision rehabilitation in relation to your personal views, values and beliefs and professional practice. These areas will also be practiced within, linked to, and supported by on the job learning as part of the apprenticeship pathway, work-based learning, on placement or with your employer.
This module is a key part of the FdSc Vision Rehabilitation Specialist Programme. You will build upon the foundation skills that you have already learnt in year one. This initial year two module introduces you to strategies and procedures used to teach road crossings to people with vision impairment. Outdoor travel will incorporate the teaching of controlled and uncontrolled road crossings. You will be learning skills and techniques to minimise safety for train travel. We will use complex town centre routes that will involve problem solving and creative route planning.
This module is a key part of the FdSc Vision Rehabilitation Specialist Programme. You will build upon your knowledge of teaching road crossings and routes. This module aims to introduce you to skills and procedures used to teach advanced orientation and mobility to individuals with vision impairment. You will be learning skills and techniques to minimise safety for bus and tram travel. We will use complex city centre routes that will involve problem solving and creative route planning. You will learn how to incorporate specialist and everyday technology into the day-to-day travel for a person with a vision impairment. There will also be sessions dedicated to wheelchair mobility and orientation strategies for individuals who are Deaf blind.
The development of technology within the vision rehabilitation sector has many positive applications for the lives of people with a vision impairment. Enabling the use and access of assistive devices and accessibility features has the potential to support independence in daily living, communications with others, access to information and with getting out and about. This module introduces you to the accessibility features on widely available technological devices such as Smartphones and tablets. In addition, workshops will explore methods of maximising the use of vision with near vision aids, reading strategies, eccentric viewing techniques and effective lighting options. Leaners also focus on a range of communication methods including braille, deafblind manual and block alphabet.
This module continues with further exploration into the use of technology in daily life by people who have a vision impairment. The focus is on the ability to teach the accessibility features of the android, synaptic and apple tablets and Smartphones. Learners will be able to identify key learning needs and enable the use of specialist accessibility gestures to conduct tasks such as making calls, messaging, storing contacts and searching the web. In practice this provides people who have a vision impairment the platform to carry out wider tasks with these devices such as internet banking, online shopping and access to social media. In the assessment you will choose to teach an introduction to the use of either the Samsung, synaptic or Apple tablet or iPhone. Learners will need to prepare to teach accessibility features to someone with low vision and be prepared to enable the use of screen enhancement, magnification or speech. In addition, you will need to create a bespoke session that teaches the use of apps the person wishes to use.
You will work for a minimum of 60 days as a trainee Vision Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) within a team of qualified VRSs. Within this team you will have a dedicated mentor who is a qualified VRS with two years’ experience of practice. During this period, you will be supported to work towards the independent management of a caseload of people who have a vision impairment. You will apply learning from the course to demonstrate a wide range of knowledge, skills and behaviours to evidence your occupational competence. Your workplace mentor will conduct observations of practice to assess your competence in the delivery of specialist rehabilitation assessment and the training of independent living skills, communications and orientation and mobility to people who have a vision impairment. In addition, your mentor will comment on caseload management, professional behaviour and other pertinent attributes to becoming a VRS. You will document your experiences of people you have been working with in relation to issues such as professional boundaries, consent, aging, mental health and deafblindness.
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