Elizabeth McCann

Teaching Fellow - Visual Impairment

  • Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership (IETL)
  • Moray House School of Education and Sport
  • University of Edinburgh

Contact details

Address

Street

Charteris Land (Rm 2.04)

City
Moray House School of Education and Sport
Post code
EH8 8AQ
Street

Scottish Sensory Centre

City
Moray House School of Education and Sport
Post code
EH8 8AQ

Availability

  • Monday, Tuesday and Friday

Biography

Background

I am currently on a part-time secondment to the University from my post as a teacher for children with a visual impairment. 

I originally qualified as a Primary Teacher and taught in a mainstream school. I applied for a two year secondment with the visual impairment service in the local authority as I thought this would be interesting. Twenty years later and I have honed my knowledge of visual impairment working in several different local authorities and a short spell in Ontario, Canada. My remit has involvement with children, young people, and their families from birth to 18 years of age. I have a particular interest in teaching braille.

I deliver in-service training on several areas including pre and early braille skills, assessment of functional vision, Cerebral Visual Impairment and on-body signing.

I was involved in writing the competences for teachers with visual impairment and subsequent update in 2020. I was also involved in the writing of the Quality Assurance document: How Good Is Our Sensory Service? published by the Scottish Sensory Centre in 2019.

Postgraduate teaching

I will be teaching on the MSc in Inclusive Education, specifically the Postgraduate Diploma in Visual Impairment.

Semester 1 course: Assessing Pupils and Students with Visual Impairment (EDUA11245)

Semester 2 course: Issues and Strategies for Teaching and Learning - Visual Impairment (EDUA11247)

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

No

Current research interests

McLinden, M., Ravenscroft, J., Douglas, G., Hewett, R., McCann, E. and Roe, J. (2020) Promoting a balanced early years curriculum for young children with vision impairment: Developing and sustaining personal agency through a bioecological systems perspective. British Journal of Visual Impairment. DOI: 10.1177/0264619619901036

Conference details

ICEVI Europe, Brussels 2017: Presented a paper on Objects of Reference: A Case Study of one Local Authorities attempt to streamline their use.

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