Assistant Professor
Accepting MA and PhD student beginning with academic year 2026/27
I am a career educator with decades of experience across multiple contexts, age groups, and ability levels. After completing my doctoral studies at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, I joined the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor. My primary teaching focus is within the visual disabilities program.
My research interests lie in improving teacher preparation for those who intend to become teachers of students with visual impairments (TSVI) and in developing effective professional development opportunities for in-service educators using a range of methodologies. My main research project is centered around, and I am deeply committed to consent education, particularly as it relates to personal and professional interactions, and how cultural perspectives can shape understandings of physical touch and the concept of consent.
Prospective graduate students should be certified/credentialed educators with an experience in the visual disabilities field (e.g., TSVI, COMS) with at least three years of teaching experience with students with disabilities.
Scholarly Interest
Self-determination within and beyond the Expanded core curriculum.
Professional development including pre-service and in-service teacher preparation.
Methodologies: single-case design, mixed methods, survey.
Theoretical orientation: Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory; Social Constructivism;
Cognitivism
Leadership position examples:
- AERBVI: Canadian representative and chair-elect of Personnel prep division
- UBC-FoE EDID committee member
- UBC-FoE Accessibility Workgroup member
Member of multiple professional organizations examples:
- Shared Vision a Collaborative Network of BC Visual Impairment and Deafblind
organizations focusing on supporting K-12 students and their families - Volunteering with multiple organizations and their events across BC such as
Blind Beginnings - Council for Exceptional Children [CEC]:
– Division on Visual Impairments and Deafblindness [DVIDB]
– Teacher Education Division (TED)
– Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities [DADD] - California Association of Orientation and Mobility Specialists [CAOMS]
EPSE 536 Foundations of Education for Students with Visual Impairments
EPSE 541 Braille Reading and Writing
EPSE 545 Teaching the Expanded Core Curriculum to Students with Visual Impairments
EPSE 590 Graduating Seminar
EPSE 598 Practicum/Internship- (TSVI)
Course under development: EPSE 565A: Nature and needs of persons with multiple disabilities and visual impairments (3)
Florida State University, 2023, Ph.D. (Curriculum & Instruction; Special Education)
- Online learning and teaching (grad cert)
- Program evaluation (grad cert)
San Francisco State University, 2019; M.A. (Special Education)
- Teacher of students with visual impairments (TSVI)
- Certified and credentialed orientation and mobility specialist (COMS)
San Francisco State University, 2016; B.A. (School-age Child and Family)
SNAAP: Preserving self and personal autonomy through processes of consent to support long term quality of life outcomes for people with disabilities.
Personnel Prep projects:
- Book club: Using lived experiences of individuals with visual impairments to build anti-ableist foundations of master’s students preparing to be teachers of students with visual impairments.
- Barriers and enablers to balancing the expanded core curriculum.
- Perceptions, understanding, and practices of self-determination among TSVIs.
Click on the icons below to take you to the URL:
Fundelius, E., & Randles, L. (in press 2025) “Be ready, maximize safety: Emergency preparedness for Itinerant teachers supporting students with disabilities.” The New RE:View. TNR.25.003
Quezada, S.*, Fundelius, E., Bush, E., Root, J., (in press 2025) “You are just a life role model” A multiple case study of teachers with visual impairment in the field of visual disabilities. Teacher Education and Special Education [TESE].
Fundelius, E., & Mara, E.* (2025) Surviving and thriving with progressive vision loss while becoming a vision professional: A collaborative approach. The New RE:View, 3(2) 85-96; https://doi.org/10.56733/ TNR.24.015
Dennis, L., Eldridge, J.,* Wade, T.,* Robbins, A.,* Larkin, M.,* & Fundelius, E.* (2024). The effects of practice-based coaching and scripted supports on teachers’ implementation of shared book reading strategies. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590241228429
Fundelius, E., (2023) The glue that holds it all together: Self-determination. Visual Impairment and Deafblind Education Quarterly, 68(2), 17-28. Spring Convention Issue. http://dvi.uberflip.com/i/1498153-vidbeq-68-2-spring-2023/0?
Fundelius, E., (2023). Supporting students with visual impairments when language might be a barrier. Visual Impairment and Deafblind Education Quarterly, 68(1), 14 22. http://dvi.uberflip.com/i/1491874-vidbeq-68-1-winter-2023/13?
Fundelius, E., (2023). Wade, T., Robbins, A., Wang. S., McConomy, M. A., & Fumero, K. (2022). Universal design principles for multimodal representation in shared book reading for preschoolers, Inclusive Practices, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/2732474522114038.