08/26/2026
Molly Pasley’s return to Thailand offers sharing of practice in visual disabilities
August 24, 2026
Mark McGowanenewsletter, Research/Faculty,
When Molly Pasley traveled in Thailand in July 2024, it was at the invitation of NIU School of Music Professor Jui-Ching Wang.
The “Songs the Blind Can See” community service project worked to adapt music education for students with visual impairments at the Roi Et School for the Blind.
Several students joined them to teach about U.S. culture, English and movement through American folk songs. Pasley served as the group’s specialist in blindness.
But Pasley, an associate professor in the Department of Special and Early Education’s Vision Studies program, also made her own connections there.
And, this summer, she returned.
“I met a gentlemen named Winit Moonwicha, who was a member of the board of directors of what, at the time, was called the Christian Foundation for the Blind. Now it’s been changed to the Charity Foundation for the Blind (CFBT),” Pasley says.
“He and I began talking, and I’ve stayed in contact with him for the last two years,” she adds. “I’ve been sharing resources with him, he’s been sharing resources with me, and I’ve just been learning about how children are taught in Thailand.”
Moonwicha eventually told Pasley that he was “very interested in Orientation and Mobility training and possibly sending over some of their instructors to come through our O&M program.”
Unfortunately, she says, that hasn’t happened yet – but, last fall, the conversation turned to devising a workforce development project where Pasley would observe and collaborate with instructors to deliver a compressed version of NIU’s curriculum to upskill the service providers in mutually agreed upon areas.
Pasley was in Thailand from June 29 through July 10, spending time at six different locations, including schools for the blind, schools for people with multiple disabilities and vocational education centers.
Destinations included several schools for students who are blind or with multiple disabilities, including Ban Dek Ramindra, Dhammikkawittaya, Cha-Am and Lopburi.
Other visits took her to the Yothinburana Phetchaburi Inclusive School; the Khaoyoi Inclusive School; the Nakhon Nayok Center for Career Promotion and Development for the Blind with Multiple Disabilities; the Khon Kaen University Demonstration School and School for the Blind; and the Northeast Institute for Promotion and Development of Quality of Life for Blind People.
Her preparation included an assist from the Rev. Dr. Gene Bourquin, another of Pasley’s connections in the field of visual disabilities.
Molly Pasley and the Rev. Dr. Gene Bourquin.
Molly Pasley and the Rev. Dr. Gene Bourquin.
“I thought it was important for me to have an O&M specialist who understood Thai culture and Thai context,” she says. “I wanted to make sure I had a thought partner and someone who had a deeper understanding of O&M in Thailand that I didn’t have.”
Not only did that prove illuminating, she adds, but it also shifted the purpose of her work.
“During the presentations, Dr. Gene and I kept asking ourselves, ‘We aren’t hearing anything about the strategies that are used to cross streets independently here in Thailand. How do they do that?’ So we asked some of leaders at CFBT who are blind, ‘How do you cross streets? How do you this? How do you do that?’ and they responded, ‘We ask for help.’ I was like, ‘OK, I get it’ We’re looking at two very different cultures in terms of how blind people travel,” she says.
“In the U.S., we are individualistic. Being independent means being on your own. You do things on your own,” she adds, “ and, yes, we do teach our students and the people who we work with that, ‘It’s OK to ask for help and you’re going to need to ask for help, so let’s talk about what strategies you can use to do that and to effectively get good information that you can then make decisions with.’ ”
But in Thailand, she says, “it’s a lot more collectivist where they support each other. The family unit is very important. Community is very important.”
During a trip to the BTS Skytrain, Bangkok’s mass transit system, Pasley and Bourquin observed a couple passengers who were blind as they exited the train.
“There was a person who works for the Skytrain watching to see if anybody with disabilities is exiting the train. They go greet them, and then they walk them through until they can get to the walkway to connect to the other Skytrain,” Pasley says. “Then, there’s another person who’s waiting for them to get them the rest of the way. It’s almost like a ‘disability shuttle’ to get from Point A to Point B safely and efficiently.”
So, she says, part of her work with Thai service providers was that they encourage problem-solving and critical thinking through exploration of the built environment.
Included in those presentations were basic techniques for cane use, walking in step and remaining in constant contact, as well as advice on class size.
“Based on the presentations they were providing us, they said that students either are taught direct O&M skills or that they received O&M skills throughout the day in sometimes larger groups,” Pasley says.
“And, because of that, one of the recommendations we gave was, ‘If you can put them together in smaller, similar skill-level groups, then you can focus on some of those skills and provide more opportunities for practice.’ ”
That said, “it is collectivist – people just want to help – so we tried to promote that they allow students to explore and make mistakes without getting hurt, and to allow them to problem-solve before intervening. I feel like I learned more – and got more than I gave.”
For her NIU students, she adds, the revelation of the trip will lend weight to a philosophy she’s always emphasized as a professor.
“It validated just having that cultural humility and the importance of going in and trying to learn as much as you can from people,” Pasley says.
“If that’s your future students, and your future families that you’re working with – if they’re adults or children – it’s about understanding their cultural context and being respectful of that,” she adds. “Instead of coming in and trying be very prescriptive and to make decisions for them, it should be having more of a conversation and a collaboration.”
The reason is, well, clear to see.
“I am a sighted person. I have not lost my vision. But, based on my experience as a teacher, especially with adults who were sighted and then lost their vision, is that they feel this loss of agency and this loss of control,” Pasley says.
Molly Pasley outside Thailand’s Khon Kaen Vocational Colleges for the Blind with its director and staff.
Molly Pasley outside Thailand’s Khon Kaen Vocational Colleges for the Blind with its director and staff.
“Yet sometimes, in the teacher role, we come in and say, ‘You’re going to learn this, this, this and this,’ ” she adds.
Listening, she says, is the better strategy.
“Have an open conversation with them about, ‘What do you want to learn? What is the context that you live in? Your family? Your home environment? Your community?’ ” she says. “Learn about that first, and then present it in terms of questions – ‘What do you think about learning this?’ or ‘These are some things I observed, and I think this could be helpful to you. What do you think?’ ”
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