Team
Project team
The project team includes staff from the FHNW School of Social Work and the Department of Special Education at the University of Fribourg.
Project partners
The orthoptic eye tests planned for the project will be carried out by Katinka Probst and Antonia Heggli from the Fachstelle Sehen at SONNENBERG (Centre of Excellence for Vision, Behaviour and Speech) in various nurseries and schools in Switzerland.
The neuropsychological examinations planned in the project for children with positive results in the vision test will be carried out by Dr. Sandra Leh-Seal in her Praxis für Neuropsychologie & Entwicklungsförderung (NEF) in Herrliberg.
The SNABLIND is the umbrella organisation for blind and visually impaired people in Switzerland. Since 1903, it has been working to ensure that blind, deafblind, visually impaired and hearing-impaired people can live their everyday lives to the best of their abilities and be as independent as possible.
In 2022, the SNABLIND published the ‘CVI Consensus’, which outlines (future) forms and structures of support. In 2025, the national CVI centre was established. Gisela Spiegel from the CVI centre at SNABLIND and Vivianne Visschers (head of research at SNABLIND) support the project through their networking activities and ongoing exchange with the entire project team.
Project advisory board
We have put together an advisory board for our project, consisting of scientists and experts from various fields as well as parents of children with CVI.
Professor at the Institute for Social Pedagogy at the University of Siegen. Main areas of work and research: concepts of inclusion and disability, capabilities approach, inclusive child and youth welfare, relationship between social work and special/disability education, multi-professional cooperation, qualitative research methods. Profile on the University of Siegen website.
Expert in advising schools on supporting visually impaired children and young people. Many years of experience at the State Support Center for Vision, Schleswig, Germany. Author of several publications on diagnosis and education for children with CVI. Member of various networks on the subject of CVI in childhood.
University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Senior Physician, Head of the Department of Pediatric Health Services Research, Co-Head of the Department of Special Education, Developmental Pediatrics, FMH Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Specialist in Neuropediatrics (Germany), Specialist in Developmental Pediatrics (Switzerland).
Founding member and chair of the board of the international organization CVI Scotland (cviscotland.org). Honorary professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of St. Andrews, collaboration on several projects and publications on CVI. Mother of a child with CVI and therefore also an expert in participatory approaches and cooperative knowledge building between science, practice, and target groups.
Professor of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Bristol Medical School (PHS) at the Bristol Population Health Science Institute. Research focus in the field of visual impairment in children. Head of the CVI Project in England: The CVI Project.
Professor of Education for the Visually Impaired at the University of Special Education (HfH) in Zurich. Head of the Vision Studies program at HfH. Leads research projects on various topics related to visual impairment in children. Profile on the HfH website.