McNeill shines light on accessibility

When working in any kind of education, particularly special education, one must take a different point of view to accommodate students. They take things that seem like problems, and find new angles and perspectives to approach with. 

“Being a vision teacher is merging creativity and science not the standard way everyone else does; find a way to teach the same concept but in a completely different way,” explained Yardley McNeill, teacher of the visually impaired (VI) at CVHS. 

Almost on her twentieth year working for CVUSD, McNeill teaches the VI class, as well as working at other schools in and outside of the district as an roaming teacher providing vision services to the students on her caseload.

“I was terrified of teaching high school; I got the opportunity due to being short staffed so I had to step in and teach high schoolers after years,” McNeill shared.

Before, she had experience teaching a variety of grade levels, but she had never been a main high school teacher. However, after having many years of experience with students of all age groups, she has found herself enjoying high school the most. She has been pleasantly surprised by the similarities she has found when teaching teens and younger children.

”Younger kids want independence and so do teens, the ‘I can do it myself’ mindset, and I always empower that. The younger kids see the world as new and interesting and they have a lot of questions. The challenge with teens is to get them to look at the world with that same wonder,” McNeill said.

McNeill also shared that she truly enjoys the deep talks she is able to have with her teenage students.

Being a teacher for the visually impaired looks different every single day. Some days are filled with paperwork and writing reports, and other days may look like doing assessments on students, but every day includes helping and teaching students.

“Multiple schools have brilliant kids who thrive in their academics that ‘simply’ have a vision impairment, but it’s not always that simple, as it’s not only making things bigger,” expressed McNeill.

Some students need help with what may seem like basic tasks to others, an example being cooking. McNeill not only supports her students with their academics, she also brings accessibility to daily tasks in the outside world. 

The privilege of constantly adapting and growing is what makes this job so interesting and unique. “You get to grow because someone needed you, however it’s important to keep in mind that you have to learn, you will never know it all, you may be good at it today, and tomorrow it’s new again,” she said.