Sew Independent: Teaching Sewing to Individuals with Vision Impairment

This course equips vision rehabilitation professionals with the foundational skills and strategies needed to teach basic hand sewing to adults with vision loss. Participants will learn adaptive techniques for threading needles, making essential stitches, and attaching buttons, while fostering confidence and independence in learners. The course emphasizes safety, organization, and practical teaching methods to overcome common barriers and promote success. By the end, professionals will be prepared to integrate sewing into independent living and clothing management training as both a functional and leisure activity. 

This course is available for 2 ACVREP credits.

Learning Objectives 

1. Identify three common barriers that prevent individuals with vision impairment from completing basic sewing tasks.
2. Demonstrate competence in threading a needle and sewing a basting stitch, back stitch, hemming stitch, and attaching a button using adaptive techniques.
3. Describe three instructional strategies that promote learner success and a positive attitude toward sewing. 

The following are recommended screen reader and browser combinations.

Mac: Voiceover with the latest version of Safari,

PC: JAWS or NVDA with Firefox

The course shows a start date, but this is simply the date the course was made available to the public. They are self-paced. So, there is not an end date. You can enroll at any time.

This course was developed by the National Research & Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision (NRTC) at Mississippi State University. We are the only national center funded to conduct research related to employment for people with blindness or low vision, and training and technical assistance for the federal Older Individuals who are Blind program. As a national center of excellence, we offer resources on a variety of topics for service providers, businesses, and persons with vision loss on our websites:

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