Disability History Month: ANNE CORN: Researcher in the field of visual disabilities
Office of the Governor Texas sent this bulletin at 10/10/2014 08:00 AM CDTCommittee on People with Disabilities
Friday, October 10, 2014:
ANNE CORN: Researcher in the field of visual disabilities
Dr. Anne Corn is an innovative researcher, educator and advocate in the field of disabilities, and is considered a visionary within the field of visual disabilities. She herself is legally blind, but her own experiences have led her to re-think many of the traditional approaches to services and education for those who are blind or visually impaired, reconsidering methods that have long been considered the norm. When Corn was 18, her counselor pushed her to learn to use a cane, but she refused, preferring instead to use combined visual and auditory methods for accomplishing tasks. Her personal experience led her to research alternative procedures and techniques to navigating the word with various degrees of visual impairment.
Corn came to the University of Texas in Austin in 1980 and joined the Special Education Department. During her tenure there, she mobilized a team of specialists and educators to deliver low-vision services to sparsely populated areas; helped the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles analyze accidents involving low-vision drivers using bioptic telescopic systems; studied functional vision and literacy; and developed a theory of how visually impaired people use their functional vision – a theory now taught worldwide. Corn has served as a board member for Prevent Blindness Texas, Austin’s Urban Transportation Committee, and the Board of Trustees for the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Corn accepted a position at Vanderbilt University in 1992; one of her most notable achievements there was in founding Providing Access to the Visual Environment (PAVE), now a comprehensive model for delivering low-vision services to children. She returned to Texas as Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt, and continues her research and publishing to increase awareness and provide alternative options for those with visual disabilities.
Dr. Anne Corn was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
Attributions:
- TWU Texas Women’s Hall of Fame: http://www.twu.edu/twhf/tw-corn.asp
- Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired: http://www.tsbvi.edu/low-vision/80-low-vision-without-blindfolding
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