What is Orientation and Mobility?

ORIENTATION

It’s the process of using ones senses to establish ones position and relation to all other significant objects in ones environment.

MOBILITY

The ability to move independently, safely, efficiently and gracefully from one place to another.

Orientation and mobility training (O & M) helps a blind or visually impaired person know where he is in space and where he wants to go (orientation). It also helps him be able to carry out a plan to get there (mobility).

Orientation and mobility skills should begin to be developed in infancy starting with basic body awareness and movement, and continuing on into adulthood as the individual learns skills that allow him to navigate his world efficiently, effectively, and safely, all this depends on when an individual losses their sight.

PRINCIPLES OF ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY

There are three basic questions that are IMPORTANT for a person to ask themselves:-
1.Where am I? This helps to establish ones position in relation to ones environment
2.Where do I want to go? Helps to create a line and direction of movement in relation to ones environment
3.How do I get there? Helps to establish the means and mode of moving from ones position to their desired point.

WHAT SKILLS ARE TAUGHT THROUGH O & M?

When planning an O & M program for children the focus of training may include such things as:
•Sensory awareness: gaining information about the world through hearing, smell, touch and prior perception
•Spatial concepts: realizing that objects exist even if not heard or felt, and understanding the
•Relationships which exist between objects in the environment
•Searching skills: locating items or places efficiently
•Independent movement: which includes crawling, rolling, walking, etc?
•Sighted guide: using another person to aid in travel
•Protective techniques: specific skills which provide added protection in unfamiliar areas
•Cane skills: use of various cane techniques to clear one's path or to locate objects along the way.

MODES OF ORIENTATION & MOBILITY

1.Use of a sighted Guide – use of a sighted person to guide the PWVI
2.Use of Mobility equipments:-
•white canes
•walking sticks
•Electronic sensor – a cane is fitted with a Sensor, a vibrator or a sound alarm that is activated whenever a PWVI encounters an obstacle. They are mainly used in developed countries. They can’t identify glass doors.
3.Use of a Dog guide- mainly used in developed countries where the infrastructure is well structured and the community is animal friendly.
4.Use of Landmarks and Clues

REASONS FOR O & M TRAINING THROUGH USE OF A WHITE CANE

1. Independence
2. Identification
3. Safely and protection

CONCLUSION

Independent movement is critical for all children with visual impairments. Orientation and Mobility specialists are trained to provide instruction which will enable children with visual impairments to reach their highest level of independence. The services provided by an O & M specialist may not always need to be delivered directly to be effective, but even infants or children with multiple disabilities need the special support of a trained Orientation & Mobility Specialist.

Make sure your child's O & M needs a priority for his independence.

What is this blog about?

About The “Rehabilitation Services in Kenya” Blog

What is this blog about?

This blog is for anyone who wants to get more information on Rehabilitation services for persons with visually impairment people in East Africa.

I plan to cover a wide range of topics on Community based Rehabilitation.

I may simply point to a resource or web site that might be of interest to you.

I might get someone who has interesting information, knowledge, or experiences to share about disabilities and poverty or human rights in developing countries.

Or sometimes I might simply express an opinion of my own.

One of my hopes for this blog is that it might become a way to bring together people from around the world from a wide range of backgrounds and interests. In other words:

This Blog is for: Parents of Children with Disabilities looking for a Referral to a Specialist to for assessment, treatment and Rehabilitation.

This blog is for: People with and without disabilities. People in developing countries. People who grew up poor (or who are poor now), and people who grew up with all the food, water, clothing, education, health care, and other basic services that they needed.

This blog is for: People who might know a great deal about international development, but who are still learning about disabilities. I hope this blog can become a resource to you in figuring out how to more actively include people with disabilities in your mainstream program activities.

This blog is ALSO for: People who know a great deal about disabilities and disability rights, but who maybe don’t know much about this strange field called “international development” and wonder why they should.

This blog is for: People who know about disabilities, but who maybe are not yet familiar with the “social model” or the human rights perspective of disability.

This blog is for: People who are still new both to disabilities and to development or to developing countries.

This blog is for: People who are already experts in disability and development but who want to learn about best practices being done at other organizations or in other countries. Or who hope to learn about the occasional unfamiliar resource.

This blog is for: Professionals who work in the field of development, particularly professionals in disability and development.

This blog is for: Advocates and activists who volunteer their free time in a non-government organization (NGO) run by (or on behalf of) people with disabilities in developing countries.

This blog is for: People who are not yet actively involved in improving the lives of people with disabilities in developing countries, but who would like to be.

Finally this Blog is for Me: To share experience and Knowledge on my many years of Rehabilitation training to People with Visual Impairment and DeafBlind Children

Learning from You

I look forward to learning from your own perspectives and ideas in the comments area of this blog site. I hope you will find this blog to be helpful to you in turn.

If you do need to contact me for some reason, then you can do that at jmmulwa@gmail.com