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Chrissy Cowan’s Advice on Visual Efficiency Skills

Chrissy Cowan

Chrissy has been an itinerant teacher for children with visual impairments in Austin and the surrounding areas for 15 years, an Education Specialist in the area of visual impairments at the Education Service Center—Region 13 for 16 years and is currently the statewide mentor coordinator in the TSBVI Outreach Department.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in Education with an endorsement in Deficient Vision and a master’s degree in Special Education (Infant/Early Childhood) from the University of Texas at Austin. She has served in numerous advisory capacities including on both the ExCET Content Advisory Panel (1998) and the TExES Content Advisory Panel (2005) for the Texas State Board of Education and has presented numerous professional education workshops. Chrissy received the “Equality of Access and Opportunity” award from the American Foundation for the Blind in March of 1993 for working to craft a braille bill in the state of Texas.

She is currently a member of the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) and played an active role on the Low Vision Committee to establish criteria for low vision specialists on the international level. She held the office of chairperson in the AER division for itinerant teachers for 1994-1996. Among her publications, Chrissy co-authored two chapters on the topic of teaching students to use optical devices in Looking to Learn: Promoting Literacy for Students with Low Vision, published in 2000 by AFB Press.

Chrissy’s Advice on Visual Efficiency Skills