Orientation and mobility (O&M) practice is important because the population of persons with visual impairments is large enough to warrant planned action on measures to help them acquire independence and sustain their livelihoods. Most O&M practitioners in South Africa are full-time employees in non-governmental organizations. The few who work in public service work in schools. This research seeks to explore and describe the current state of O&M practice in South Africa as perceived by O&M practitioners, so as to determine factors that could contribute to its improvement. Although the study was conducted in South Africa, its findings could inform O&M practitioners in other parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. In almost all cases, O&M practitioners are responsible for making training programs that they follow with clients. They visit clients, discuss issues related to individual needs and interests so as to decide on relevant content, and design functional timetables. However, they stated that time for training individual clients was severely constrained, since there were usually many prospective clients on waiting lists for training. Consequently, practitioners preferred to train new clients and were willing to work with old clients only on their emergent needs, such as when they changed to a new work environment and needed reorientation. The practitioners still hoped for better salaries and working conditions, although many service organizations in the developing world are operating under difficult economic circumstances. (Contains 1 table.)