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
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: 10.1177/0264619619901036Conference details
ICEVI Europe, Brussels 2017: Presented a paper on Objects of Reference: A Case Study of one Local Authorities attempt to streamline their use.