For 25 years, Becky Coakley, the director of outreach for the West Virginia University Eye Institute, has been dedicated to advocating for the state’s blind and low-visionpopulation through the programs she has helped start at the University.One ofthese programs, the Children’s Vision Rehabilitation Project (CVRP), aims tobridge the gap between the medical and educational fields for children who are blind orvisually impaired.
CVRP works in coordination with teachers in West Virginia to medically evaluatevisually impaired children and prescribe them devices that they can use in theclassroom to help them access information just like their peers do, and at home for day-to-day use.When the program was officially launched in 1996, it held the honor of being only the secondlow-vision program created for children in the United States, and it is now the longest-runningadvocacy program for blind and visually impaired children, according to CoakleyCoakley describes the children she has worked with overthe years through CVRP as her “secondfamily,” and said she cherishes the relationships she has built over the years through theprogram.“Keeping close bonds with the children as they grow into adults and seeing the amazing thingsthey grow up to do is incredibly rewarding,”
Coakley said. “Even though they have to workthrough so many obstacles they always find ways to persevere, which makes me very proud.”