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…

Accessible Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are changing the way many people with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) travel. GPS provides real-time orientation information so that a traveler with a visual impairment can make informed decisions about path of travel and destination. Orientation and mobility (O&M)…

Accurately aligning to a crosswalk is an important component of safe street crossing for pedestrians who are blind. Six alignment cues were evaluated in a simulated crosswalk environment in which the angle of the crosswalk was not always in line with the slope of the ramp. The effectiveness of each cue is reported and implications are discussed.…

Five cues were evaluated with respect to their usefulness in directing the headings of pedestrians who were blind during street crossings. The study was conducted at a simulated crosswalk, with the angle of the crosswalk varied relative to the approach and direction of the slope of the ramp. Three cues worked well over the distance equivalent to…

The number of visually impaired people is increasing year by year. Although attention has been given to the needs of people with disabilities, most of the discussion has focused on social welfare, while talk about assistive technology for people with disabilities is rare. The blind need training courses for reconstruction and rehabilitation.…

Attacks by dogs on dog guides are traumatic for dog guide teams. One variable that affects a team's recovery is how handlers cope with emotional responses to the attack. This article presents a three-stage model for assisting handlers that is useful for handlers and dog guide instructors.

Eighteen persons with visual impairments evaluated four systematically selected navigation systems. Their performance on 11 tasks, provided ratings, satisfaction on seven aspects of the assistive devices, and explanatory comments show generally valuable functionality and usability, as well as individual marked preferences for various features of…

Global Positioning Systems' (GPS) technology is available for individuals with visual impairments to use in wayfinding and address Lowenfeld's "three limitations of blindness." The considerations and methodologies for teaching GPS usage have developed over time as GPS information and devices have been integrated into orientation and mobility…

The study presented here examined which auditory cues individuals with visual impairments use more frequently and consider to be the most important for wayfinding in urban environments. It also investigated the ways in which these individuals use the most significant auditory cues. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Young children with visual impairments face many challenges as they learn to orient to and move through their environment, the beginnings of orientation and mobility (O&M). Children who are visually impaired must learn many concepts (such as body parts and positional words) and skills (like body movement and interpreting sensory information) to…

A fundamental part of the orientation and mobility curriculum is the acquisition and retention of skills in using a long cane automatically and proficiently to detect and negotiate obstacles and drop-offs. Using practitioners' experiences and the principles of learning theory, instructors can monitor students' advancement and adapt teaching…

Like many other states, California is facing a daunting budget deficit, reportedly about $19 billion. Delayed budgets have held up the disbursement of money, affecting school programs in districts as well as at the California School for the Blind (CSB). The current financial constraints have had an impact on CSB's programs. Its department of seven…

These two studies assessed adapted orientation technology for promoting correct direction and room identification during indoor traveling by persons with multiple (e.g., sensory, motor and intellectual/adaptive) disabilities. In Study I, two adults were included who had severe visual impairment or total blindness and deafness and used a wheelchair…

This study compared the drop-off detection performance with the two-point touch and constant contact cane techniques using a repeated-measures design with a convenience sample of 15 cane users with visual impairments. The constant contact technique was superior to the two-point touch technique in the drop-off detection rate and the 50% detection…

This study evaluated a protocol that was developed to assess how beneficial electronic travel aids are for persons who are visually impaired. Twenty persons with visual impairments used an electronic travel device (Trekker) for six weeks to conform to the protocol, which proved useful in identifying successful users of the device. (Contains 2…