ORIENTATION & MOBILITY SPECIALIST

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
Updated November 12, 2015

If the student is mobile and has a significant visual impairment or is blind, they may require special instruction from an Orientation and Mobility Specialist to assist them in independent travel.  Independent travel helps build self-esteem and self-confidence as the student learns to move freely about. 

Independent travel gives the student more control over their environments, enabling them to travel when and wherever they wish (within their capabilities), without having to always rely on others to take them where they want to go.  If the student learns good orientation & mobility skills as a child, they are more likely to develop into a responsible, confident, and independent adult traveler. Orientation is knowing about where one is, where one is going, and how to get there.
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The Orientation & Mobility Specialist is a certified instructor who has received specialized training in teaching people who are blind or visually impaired to travel safely, gracefully and efficiently throughout their environments including indoor and outdoor, familiar and unfamiliar.  An Orientation and Mobility Specialist teaches people who are blind and visually impaired specific skills they need in order to know where they are and how to move independently, safely, efficiently to where they want to be. Usually the O&M Specialist works with students individually.  

Part of O&M instruction involves working with younger students on concept development as it relates to body image, spatial awareness, and knowledge of the environment.  If appropriate, they will instruct the student to use his hand to protect himself using protective techniques. They will also help the student learn routes throughout the classroom and school. Orientation refers to knowing where you are by using clues from your environment. Mobility means moving safely from place to place in a graceful and efficient manner.  The Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments can support and follow through on techniques that have been taught to the student, but may not write O&M goals or directly teach skills.

The O&M Specialist will typically work directly with the student, but might also work in collaboration with the student’s primary teacher, showing the teacher how to incorporate O&M techniques into the daily classroom routine and monitoring the correct use of O&M techniques. The O&M Specialist will begin by assessing the students current abilities and needs and then determine how to incorporate Orientation and mobility techniques into the student’s educational program.

Orientation and Mobility training focuses on alternatives to using sight for safe and independent travel. Students will need to learn about themselves and the environment in which they move, from basic body image to independent travel in rural areas and busy cities. For those that need it, students are taught the use of the long cane and techniques for using any remaining vision that they may have such as the use of optical devices including telescopes or a monocular.

Students in preschool and elementary school may be instructed in how to travel around their school building, playground, and neighborhood by themselves.  Elementary school students may learn about more complex environmental concepts, including topography (slope, hilly) and textures (concrete, bumpy), and about positional concepts (in front of, in back of). Middle and high school students generally learn how to cross streets at busy intersections, ride city buses, use distance visual devices that can help them see street signs, or addresses, use compass directions, plan a route of travel, shop in malls, and travel in unfamiliar areas independently.  The O&M Specialist will teach the student when it is appropriate to use a guide, when to use a cane, and when the student is older, when and if a dog guide might be useful.

     You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose!"  -Dr. Seuss

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TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired
The TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC is a digital pdf available for download. It is designed specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), and consists of over 400 activities and topic areas of discussion for instructing students in the Expanded Core Curriculum. The activities are age-neutral and multi-sensory and therefore can meet the needs of the broad range of students served on an itinerant caseload serving. The activities can be individualized to the students various learning modalities and scaffold in order to challenge students but ensure success. Select those activities that align with the student’s learning objects based on the student’s unique visual needs and academic and developmental level. In addition to the core activity areas, each of the 32 Thematic Units incorporates additional unique ECC concepts and skills providing you with a years’ worth of activities. These units are cyclical and can be used repeatedly to help students build on prior knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. Each unit includes suggestions for activity adaptation associated with the unit. These include lists of objects, possible community-based experiences, environmental print, poems, children & young reader books, children's songs, pop culture songs, movies, and websites.


In addition to the book, the following two supplements are included:
·      TVI’s Guide to the ECC Concept Checklist
·      TVI’s Guide to the ECC Activities Checklist


For complete product details and additional images, visit the TVI's Guide product page.


TVI's Guide to the ECC Product details
·      Digital pdf download: 346 pages (11 pt font)
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets: TVI's Guide to the ECC Grab and Go Supplements
The Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets is a Grab and Go supplement to the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC. This workbook is a pdf download that can be printed on demand for use with students. It contains five different types of worksheets for developing visual motor skills and near magnifier fluency skills particularly with the use of a video magnifier. As a companion to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to each of the 32 ECC Thematic units. The worksheets, along with a list of environmental print for each thematic unit, are designed to help students refine their visual motor skills while reinforcing ECC concepts presented in the thematic units.  


For complete product details and additional images, visit the Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Product Page.


Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 210 pages
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Worksheets: A TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC Grab & go Supplement
The Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Grab and Go ECC worksheet packet is a print on demand workbook that contains worksheets in print and simulated braille to use for data collection. Present the student with a hard braille copy and use the worksheets to document accuracy and fluency in reading braille. As a companion to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. These word lists and sentences will help the student refine their keyboarding or braille reading skills while bridging ECC concepts presented in the thematic units. Although the lists and passages can be produced using a manual braillewriter, you may also copy and paste the passages into any braille translation software for quick production on an embosser. They may also be entered into a typing program such as APH’s Talking Typer to build keyboarding fluency.


For complete product details and additional images, visit the Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency & Maintenance Product Page


Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency Worksheet Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 338-page print and simulated braille worksheets
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists: Grab & Go ECC Supplement
The Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Grab and Go ECC supplement is a 446 page pdf downloadable print on demand workbook that includes 2940 vocabulary card on 3 1/2" x 2" templates divided by each of the 32 Thematic Units along with a checklist of each unit words in print and simulated braille. As a companion to the TVI's Guide to the ECC, the vocabulary cards correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. 


Additional Use:
Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments can have a extremely varied caseloads. It is possible to go several years without having a student on your caseload who requires braille instruction. Like other skills, if you do not practice your braille regularly, it is easy to lose those skills. Use these checklists and cards to maintain your braille skills. Fold the checklist along the line dividing the print from the braille. Choose to either read the print and produce the word in braille using a braillewriter or read the simulated braille and decode it. Finally, these vocabulary cards and checklists may be used with family members or peers who are interested in learning and practicing the braille code.


For complete product details and additional images, visit the Thematic Vocabulary Cards & Checklists Product Page


Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Details:
·      Digital pdf download: 446-page print on demand resource
·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
·      Author: Carmen Willings
·      Language: English


BONUS!
Lotto Cards
The LOTTO Cards Grab and Go Supplement includes 37 theme related unit cards along with activity suggestions that support activities within the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC.


On My Way File Folder Cards
Print and use these cards to represent locations the student may visit that are related to the current thematic unit. Use these with the On My Way File Folder Game outlined in the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC p. 27.

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