Orientation & Mobility

Orientation and mobility is a term usually heard when talking about services to people who are visually impaired or blind. Orientation and mobility represents a body of various skills and techniques that can help people with visual loss travel more safely and independently.
 

The orientation and mobility specialist teaches one-on-one instructions on safe travel to visually impaired persons including the use of canes, dog guides, or sophisticated electronic traveling aids, as well as the sighted guide technique. O&M training also consists of: sensory awareness, concept development, spatial concepts, and orientation skills.

Lessons are geared to meet each person individual needs and capabilities. The client work to achieve their own personal level of independence as they travel in neighborhoods, local stores, restaurants, and downtown areas using cabs, buses, subways, and light rail. With instruction in the use of long cane or a variety of other mobility travel aids, students learn to navigate in malls, cross busy traffic light controlled intersections, and seek assistance from the public. As they learn to move safely outdoors and indoors environments, they also learn how to utilize directions and use non-visual cues to locate destinations and become familiar with landmarks.

Orientation refers to the ability to understand the body's position and location relative to other points in the environment. It also refers to the ability to systematically plan routes to other destinations. Most hearing and sighted people orient themselves by relying upon visual landmarks. Most hearing blind people orient themselves primarily through the use of sound cues. There are specific skills that the orientation and mobility specialist can introduce to help resolve these orientation problems. These include alternative land marking skills (using touch, smell, wind, slope and other cues), mapping skills and route planning skills, among others.

Mobility refers to the safe movement of the body in any space. As individuals experience a loss of vision, they may encounter mobility difficulties walking through indoor and outdoor areas: tripping, falling, bumping and loss of balance. There are specific skills which a mobility specialist can introduce to address and help resolve these mobility problems. To name a few, there are self-protective skills, trailing, cane skills and visual scanning techniques.