This study examined the experiences of three Latino immigrant families with children who attend an urban pre-school program for visually impaired students. Research questions addressed: family relationships and interactions; what family members report about the child's visual impairment; parents' interactions with the school and other service organizations, how parental involvement is described in these households, and what school staff members report about their experiences with Latino parents. In contrast to the deficit perspective, this study attempts to locate the families within the context of their strengths. In-depth interviews combined with participant observation were used to gather data in families' homes and at the pre-school in both English and Spanish. Data are presented in narrative form.

Findings indicated an inequity in the distribution of status and power between the school staff and the Spanish-speaking Latino families stemming in part from family members' lack of access to high-status school staff. Translation services, although mandated, were not always available or adequate. Additionally, the school personnel focused on addressing the educational and psychosocial needs of students stemming from their visual impairment but not their linguistic and cultural needs as second language learners. The school had a de facto English-only policy and non-native English speaking students were not provided with systematic first language support or ESL instruction. Finally, data indicated that families were helping their children at home although they did not receive culturally or linguistically accessible services from the school. Parent participants in this study were documented as making significant efforts to learn new skills to help their children and to ensure that their children had access to what they deemed the best education, including staying in the U.S. instead of returning to their country of origin. Parent involvement included teaching skills and information that non-visually impaired children learn incidentally and engaging in home literacy practices modified to their child's visual impairment. The findings indicate a need for education for culturally and linguistically diverse students with visual impairments that is multicultural and that adequately addresses their linguistic needs, and for school approaches to parent involvement that are equitable and accessible to all families.