Course Description Orientation and Mobility

Overview:

The Orientation and Mobility class builds self-confidence and promotes independence by educating persons who are blind or low vision how to maintain their safety and orientation during real-world travel practice and experiences.

Mastery of the following skills increase employment potential, self-reliance, and one’s ability to independently travel and problem solve daily challenges.

Overall Goal of Orientation & Mobility:

Orientation and Mobility class goals are individualized to a person’s needs and maximum potential. The overall goal is to optimize the participant’s independent travel ability in all types of environments, through a variety of travel experiences and settings.  

Orientation and Mobility Skill List:

• Mastery of long white cane techniques (i.e. cane techniques, maintenance of line of travel, squaring off, conscientious foot movement, use of environmental cues, etc.)
• Incorporation, when applicable, of various auxiliary mobility devices (i.e. support cane, wheelchair, walker, and/or guide dogs)
• Processing of auditory information
• Proper technique for negotiating stairs
• Utilize available clues for maintaining orientation and problem solving
• Determine emergency, fire, and tornado procedures in all travel environments (i.e. workplace, school, home)
• Cardinal compass directions and strategic use while traveling
• Long white cane detection of various types of drop-offs
• Increase safety in familiar and unfamiliar environments (i.e. workplace, school, shopping, city settings, etc.)
• Mastery of human guide techniques
• Practice describing routes in terms of direction, distance, and pattern
• Mastery of route planning in various environments including development of alternative routes
• Problem solving in various travel environments to determine best practices for maximum safety and efficiency
• Line of travel and sidewalk positioning
• Recovery techniques in various environments  
• Detection of regular and blended curbs
• Traffic awareness in various traffic settings 
• Analyzing and aligning for proper street crossings 
• Planning and executing indoor and outdoor routes
• Best practices and problem solving during all travel situations (i.e. road construction, etc.) 
• Monitoring and use of environmental information to solve orientation problems (auditory, tactual, sun, etc.)
• Understanding of directional sides of streets and directional corners of intersections
• Gathering, recording, and retrieval of useful information before and during travel
• Overcoming poor directional information by re-framing questions 
• Proper alignment using traffic patterns
• Mastery of various traffic-controlled street crossings (lighted and unlighted) 
• Use of data systems for gathering information (i.e. GPS, smart phones, public directory resources, etc.)
• Travel mastery in open-area environments (i.e. campus settings, parks, industrial settings, etc.)
• Mastery of various forms of transportation options within communities (i.e. fixed route bus system, curb to curb service, etc.) 
• Safe and efficient use of escalators and elevators
• Strategies for congested travel environments both indoor and outdoor
• ADA grocery shopping procedures and techniques
• Night evaluation and training when applicable       
• Training strategies for rural travel environments (i.e. no sidewalks, gravel or dirt roads, etc.)