Get Involved!

Thank you for your interest! Please explore the below opportunities or contact me to start a conversation about student opportunities or other collaborations.

Research Supervision of Graduate Students (M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Vision Science) and Postdoctoral Fellows

I supervise graduate students in the M.Sc. and Ph.D. Vision Science research programs (Rehabilitation and Visual Impairment option) at the Université de Montréal, as well as Postdoctoral fellows with aligned research interests.

Funded opportunities may occasionally be posted on the announcements section of this website, but prospective students are welcome to contact me to explore possibilities. Learn more about Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows in the lab.

Summer Internships for Blind, Deafblind and Low Vision Students

From time to time, I am able to offer funded summer research internships for students who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. These positions are intended to support students interested in gaining research experience in areas such as braille, accessibility, access technologies, inclusion and blindness rehabilitation.

Based on interests and goals, these mentorship opportunities also strive to develop relevant skills and knowledge on being a blind researcher, including tips and strategies on navigating inaccessible platforms, giving presentations, analyzing data,  and working alongside other lab members. For example, some past students have devoted a portion of their time to developing transferable skills, like the use of PowerPointor Excel with screen-reading software.

If this is something you would like to explore, I encourage you to reach out to discuss possibilities! Learn more about current and past student interns.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the Habilitas Foundation for funding these past summer internships.

Masters in Vision Rehabilitation – Professional Degree Option

Students who are more interested in pursuing a professional degree may be interested in the Masters in Visual Impairment and Rehabilitation (professional option), available in both English and French at the School of Optometry, Université de Montréal. This degree is the only one of its kind in Canada and prepares future vision rehabilitation professionals, with concentrations in three areas: low vision, vision rehabilitation and orientation and mobility. The option that would be of most interest to those wishing to teach braille and non-visual assistive technologies is the Vision Rehabilitation Therapy option, which prepares students to pursue certification through ACVREP.

You can learn more by visiting the program web page directly on the School of Optometry, Universite de Montreal website.

Research Participants

Information about opportunities to participate in current studies are often posted on the announcements section, and short user-friendly summaries highlighting big take aways from completed studies will often be posted in the research summaries section of this website.

You can also subscribe to the announcement email listserv to learn about student opportunities and upcoming and completed studies, follow the lab on Facebook and visit other parts of this website to learn more.

You may also wish to visit the Resources page that shares some external links to services, tools, and information related to braille, non-visual access methods and blindness rehabilitation.

Community Connections

Some of the most meaningful research questions emerge from conversations with the community. If you are a member of the blindness or low vision community, or a stakeholder such as a teacher, rehabilitation professional, or community organization, and you have a topic related to adult braille learning and literacy, accessibility and access technologies or social inclusion and participation that you would like to see explored in research, I would be glad to hear from you. While we cannot pursue every idea, these conversations are a great way to build bridges with others.

Collaborators

Current and past Collaborators include researchers, policy-makers, professionals and community members from fields as diverse as vision rehabilitation, educational technology, andragogy, universal design for learning, library and information studies, accessible computing, disability studies, sensory studies, public health, occupational therapy, psychology, program evaluation, and public and oral history. These partnerships enrich research by bringing diverse perspectives and expertise to shared questions about the learning and use of braille throughout adulthood, non-visual accessibility, and inclusive participation. Past collaborations have contributed to the development of initiatives, including: