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by Paul Olson, NDVS/SB Superintendent

In an attempt to share some highlights of the year, here are my Top 10 Takeaways from 2025.

1. The staff at NDVS/SB are dedicated, fun, smart, hardworking and lots of other really awesome, cool and accurate adjectives.

2. We served a whopping 534 students and adults throughout the last biennium. Woo-Hoo!

3. We had another successful legislative budget proposal leading to an appropriation to carry out our mission to serve the great citizens of North Dakota for the next 2 years.

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by Cindy Williams, TSVI and Coordinator of Student Programs

Greetings all!

Each year at this time, in my role as Coordinator of Student Programs, I reflect on and summarize the learning and educational experiences offered through our student short-term programs. This year, I am doing something a little different. Instead, I am writing about who we are and what we do as it relates to both our short-term programs and outreach services. This topic came to mind after receiving an email from the Council of Schools & Services for the Blind national listserv asking: How are services provided by schools or agencies that offer short-term programs along with outreach services? I realized this is likely a question shared by parents, educators, and even individuals we already serve. So, here we go—how do we incorporate student short-term programs with outreach services?

First, I would like to reiterate our mission, which was updated this past fall:
To provide specialized and individualized services for people of all ages who are blind or have low vision by partnering with families, educators, and agencies to empower them in achieving their goals.

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NDVS/SB prides itself as an agency that serves people from birth to death. We help those who are experiencing vision loss due to aging find solutions to maintain their independence and happiness. We help those in mid-life find hope and employment solutions, and help them relearn daily living skills like cooking and cleaning after vision loss. We help students learn in new and different ways by determining what accommodations they may need in order to be successful in school and in life. And we serve infants and toddlers, as well as their families, as they navigate sight loss while taking their first steps and their first bites. Just like the students and clients we serve, the babies we serve are all different – they have different diagnoses, different needs, different personalities. But knowing what our babies are experiencing now can help us, as an agency, as a state, and as a country, prepare for the future. 

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by Ken Dockter
NDVS/SB Adult Program Coordinator

If you are blind or have low vision, you may feel intimidated by exercise or self-conscious about performing the activities correctly. But with a few simple adaptations, you can start moving and take advantage of all the benefits of exercise, leading to a more fulfilled life. 

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Not many teens would say that the highlight of their summer was attending a conference, but that’s exactly how 16-year-old Ryder Schlafman-Hieb feels. Ryder, who is starting her junior year at Carrington High School this month, attended the CHARGE Syndrome Conference in Phoenix, AZ, at the end of July with her mom, her TSVI Lanna Slaby, and Lacey Long, the Director of the North Dakota Dual Sensory Project. Ryder was born with CHARGE Syndrome, which stands for Coloboma, Heart defects, Atresia choanae, Retarded growth and development, Genital and/or urinary abnormalities, and Ear abnormalities and deafness. These characteristics vary widely among individuals and not every person will have all the features that make up the acronym. In Ryder’s case, CHARGE Syndrome has caused vision loss, hearing loss, and other physical issues, but, more importantly, she said, “it has offered me opportunities to meet new people.” This summer was no exception, as Ryder met hundreds of individuals of all ages who have CHARGE Syndrome, as well as professionals, including those who are researching CHARGE Syndrome and people working for the CHARGE Foundation.

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