Developed by: Kathy Bietz, Lead Knowledge Translation, CNIB Research and Registered Early Childhood Educator (RECE) and Michaela Knot, Lead Research Operations and Strategy.
Federal Level Recommendations
1. National Early Childhood Blindness, Low Vision, and Deafblind Strategy
- Establish a federally funded framework to support children (ages 0–6) with blindness or low vision.
- Develop consistent standards or guidelines for early identification, referral, and intervention across provinces for access to services and follow-up.
- Include within the strategy a National Early Childhood Intervention Lab, with programming and living lab philosophy of working with multidisciplinary professionals and families to develop new intervention strategies and tools as needed and fostering academic partnerships.
2. Universal Access to Assistive Technology & Training
- Fund programs that provide free or subsidized access to digital tools (e.g., iPads, screen readers, braille displays) for families to buffer disability-related costs.
- Support research initiatives like CNIB’s digital literacy pilot project to promote early access to technology and supportive programming.
- Consider disability diversity (severities, complexity, and co-occurring disabilities) and impact on access to digital and assistive technologies.
- Create intersectional training tools and resources for children across different development ages and their families, that are current and maintained.
3. Develop Reciprocal Indigenous Partnerships and Co-Governance
- Co-develop culturally safe referral and programming models with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.
- Fund Indigenous-led early childhood vision services and training programs aligning with Indigenous self-governance.
4. Expand the CNIB National Hub and address rural inclusion
- Invest in CNIB’s National Hub model to ensure consistent virtual and in-person programming.
- Pilot rural outreach programs with mobile units and community-based facilitators.
5. Workforce Development and Training Led by Lived Experience
- Fund national training programs for CNIB staff and allied professionals on the Guiding Principles for Early Childhood Blindness, Low Vision and Deafblindness.
- Include modules on trauma-informed care, cultural safety, and inclusive play for CNIB staff.
- Ensure that any CNIB early childhood programming staff have early childhood credentials such as RECE or equivalent to oversee and review programs for age-appropriateness, liability, ethical and safe programming, with lived experience.
- Hire a national expert to monitor and evaluate programming and family engagement, with expertise in early childhood development with lived experience to understand accessibility and system-barriers faced by families.
- Ensure that information and organizational policies clearly address duty to report, parental assent and consent, childhood autonomy and rights, and confidentiality.
- Data management policy outlining Information and data collected from families mentions how the data is stored, protected, used and destroyed and that families have access to data upon their request.
Investing in Future Research
The CNIB digital literacy pilot project is a strong example of an inclusive digital innovation that can address workforce and resource shortage for families in Canada.
Federal and provincial governments should consider:
- Funding research projects that scale and develop this tool into a formal intervention or rehabilitation framework using ethical randomized control trials to develop strong evidence for cost effectiveness.
- Funding a long-term program or project to explore whether the pilot project contributes to successful school readiness transitions and program sustainability.
- Ensure ethical data collection and family-centered co-design in all research initiatives and in development of the living lab approach.
