Dr. Gibson studies students with disabilities who are difficult to see in the systems designed to serve them, and the administrative decisions that shape whether those students receive what they are owed. Her primary area is visual impairment and albinism, where she examines the social and educational experiences of students, stigma and self-advocacy, and access to the Expanded Core Curriculum — the instruction in orientation and mobility, assistive technology, independent living, and self-determination that students with visual impairments need alongside the general curriculum, and that is unevenly delivered across districts. A second area concerns state assessment policy and students with disabilities, including how changes in testing design affect eligibility determinations, diagnostic decision-making, and what state data can and cannot tell us about students who test with accommodations.

She also studies special education service delivery in rural districts, where structured intervention systems are frequently adopted without the coaching and specialist infrastructure those systems assume, and where staffing shortages shape what is possible more than policy does. A related interest is the preparation of educators and administrators to recognize populations they are likely to encounter but rarely trained for, including twice-exceptional learners. Across these areas, Dr. Gibson works at the intersection of policy, administrative practice, and classroom implementation, informed by two decades as a practitioner and district-level leader. She is committed to research that reaches the people it concerns, and presents regularly to parents, teachers, and district leaders as well as to academic audiences.