The manual explains and illustrates techniques for orientation and mobility instruction for blind primary age students in the public schools. Techniques are offered for four types of skills: (1) sighted guides (traveling on stairs and through doorways, seating a blind person); (2) protective techniques (following a wall by trailing, lower and…

A series of experiments were conducted to study variables affecting the alignment of blind pedestrians at street intersections. In the first two studies blindfolded sighted students, serving as adventitiously blind people undergoing mobility training, learned one of three strategies: no concrete strategy, tracking, and tracking and compensation.…

There is a general sense today that constructivist teaching is not up to the task of preparing students for high-stakes exams. In this article, the authors describe a highly effective constructivist approach used to teach students in a learning situation that takes the meaning of "high stakes" to another level. They talk about teachers of "cane…

The authors conducted a study to determine (a) the incidence of dual-certified vision professionals (professionals certified as both teachers of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility specialists) in Texas, (b) the degree to which these professionals worked in both roles between 2003 and 2006, (c) the reasons vision professionals…

Designed to aid the travel of handicapped persons in wheelchairs, the guide offers a list of directories for the handicapped providing information on specific geographic regions and cities. Arranged alphabetically according to states, information is also presented listing hotel accomodations accompanied with their addresses and rating information…

The article describes application for visually impaired persons of widely used Electronic Travel Aids--the Lindsay Russell Pathsounder, the Mowat Sensor, the Sonicguide, and the C-5 Laser Cane. In addition, a research review provides insight into the issues affecting future use of the devices. (Author/CL)

The article examines the concept of accessible environments for the visually impaired and describes the role of the federal government in encouraging local transit authorities to comply with Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that requires barrier-free access to all users. (Author/CL)

Four blind adults were observed to determine the extent of the natural movement of their centers of gravity in relation to arc height during the two-point touch technique for long cane travel. The Ss learned and practiced a modified technique using their center of gravity as much as possible. (Author)

Five trainable mentally handicapped students (15 through 20 years old) attending a private residential school were taught to follow eight standardized travel patterns in response to specified instructional commands. (Author/SW)

The article describes the development of the Nottingham Obstacle Detector (NOD), an ultrasonic handheld aid designed to help visually handicapped persons detect obstacles as they travel. Results of six mobility tasks are explained to point out definite advantages of NOD. (Author/CL)

Using a theoretical model of walking with the cane, drop off detection in the touch technique was analyzed for usefulness with the visually impaired. Sufficient cane length for detecting curb drop offs was found to be measurable and a chart was generated to enable the practitioner to determine cane length easily. (Author)

The authors interviewed and videotaped diabetic adults with visual impairments about their perceptions of orientation and mobility (O&M) services that they had received. The visual impairments of these middle-aged adults ranged from totally blind to low vision. The interview questions focused on demographic information about the interviewees, the…

The sensitivity of 10 moderately mentally retarded and 10 nonretarded adults to changes in environmental spatial structure with and without visual-environmental clues was examined. Both groups showed similar sensitivity to perspective changes without visual cues, but only the nonretarded demonstrated increased accuracy with the visual cues.…

The article describes studies of effectiveness of a secondary task as a measure of the blind mobility information processing workload. Secondary task performance is shown to be a useful index of effects of preview and route difficulty, as well as perceptual and cognitive demands of different mobility aids. (Author/CL)