The Role of the Orientation and Mobility Specialist

Orientation is the process of using sensory information to establish and maintain one’s position in the environment; mobility is the process of moving safely, efficiently, and gracefully within one’s environment.

Mobility is defined as “the capacity, the readiness, and the faculty to move”.
Components of Orientation and Mobility.

O&M services are “provided to blind or visually impaired students by qualified personnel to enable those students to attain systematic orientation to and safe movement within their environments in school, home, and community; and includes teaching students the following, as appropriate:

(a) Spatial and environmental concepts and use of information received by the senses (such as sound, temperature and vibrations) to establish, maintain, or regain orientation and line of travel (e.g., using sound at a traffic light to cross the street);
(b) To use the long cane to supplement visual travel skills or as a tool for safely negotiating the environment for students with no available travel vision;
(c) To understand and use remaining vision and distance low vision aids; and
(d) Other concepts, techniques, and tools

The components of an O&M curriculum include sensory, concept and motor development (fine and gross motor skills); environmental and community awareness; formal O&M skills; safety issues; the use of community resources; the use of assistive technology; and purposeful and self-initiated movement.

Other O&M skills include basic skills, indoor travel/cane skills, residential travel, light business travel, use of public transportation, metropolitan/urban travel and special areas/circumstances.

Orientation and Mobility Services

Community instruction where students receive orientation and mobility training off school campuses is also a crucial component of the orientation and mobility curriculum. Community instruction may focus on independent living activities such as shopping for groceries and clothing, banking, mailing packages, eating at a restaurant, or travelling on a subway to a job site. Providing the opportunities to interact with non-disabled and disabled peers; learning how and becoming proficient at integrating orientation and mobility skills into daily living activities, social skills, and employment skills (e.g., transportation, independent travel in the workplace); improving self-esteem and self-efficacy and engaging in community recreational activities are some advantages of community based instruction.
Community instruction assists with the transition of students from school to adulthood. Students with visual impairments and additional disabilities have difficulty generalizing skills in a variety of environments; therefore, community instruction focusing on partial participation and adaptations/modifications encourages community access.

Roles and Responsibilities of an Orientation and Mobility Specialist

Over the years, the role of the O&M specialist has expanded. Today O&M specialists assume many roles.

Instructor and Consultant

The O&M specialist provides direct instruction in concept development, environmental and community awareness, and motor development. Additionally, the O&M specialist is responsible for more advanced O&M skills training, such as cane instruction and street crossings. As a consultant, an O&M specialist may role release some basic instructional duties (e.g., monitor route travel) to a teacher, parent or paraprofessional who interacts with a student on a daily basis.

The O&M specialist has a significant role in the assessment of students. They are responsible for developing and conducting an O&M assessment for all children with visual impairments to determine the nature and extent of services needed. These assessments of students are conducted in partnership with an assessment team.
When assessing students, the O&M specialist uses instruments and checklists, observations of students in natural contexts and various environments, student portfolios, and interviews with the students and their caregivers. When O&M services are needed, an Individualized Rehabilitation Plan (IRP) is developed that includes instructional goals and objectives, the amount of time allocated for instruction, and the location of instruction.

Family and Community Educator

The O&M specialist is responsible for designing and implementing ongoing in-service education activities in the area of O&M for teachers, other professionals, administrators, parents, and consumers. In-service activities should provide information about the role of the O&M specialist and the goals of the O&M program.

O&M in-service activities should also focus on the roles of all appropriate school personnel in the development and reinforcement of concept development; sensory skills training; motor development; and formal O&M skills. To be effective, O&M training should be infused into school curricula and activities, supported and reinforced by all individuals connected with the student.

O&M instruction will have very little impact on children with visual impairments if parents/caregivers and family members are not involved in the process. It is also the responsibility of the O&M specialist to provide training to students with visual impairments and their parents. In addition to working cooperatively with family members in developing realistic goals, the O&M specialist must develop specific activities that parents and family members can implement in the home setting for continuity of instruction to occur. O&M activities should be designed so that parents and other family members can carry them out through daily living activities and recreational activities. The O&M specialist serves as a member of the transdisciplinary team in developing and implementing individualized education programs (IEP) for children with visual impairments. The O&M specialist also provides professional information about alternative systems of independent travel such as adaptive mobility devices.

Many times O&M instruction occurs in the community. Frequently, the O&M specialist has the opportunity to educate the general public regarding the capabilities of persons with visual impairments. Establishing community relationships through O&M instruction may dispel the many misconceptions that the general public often has about blindness and people with visual impairments (Welsh, 1997).

Conclusion

All children with total blindness or low vision, and children with additional disabilities including deaf blindness need an O&M assessment conducted by an O&M specialist to determine their eligibility for orientation and mobility services. Students typically qualify for O&M services when their visual disorder interferes with their ability to learn body, spatial and environmental concepts; to use orientation and mobility tools (e.g., cane, adaptive mobility devices) and low vision devices (telescope, magnifiers); use of their senses for orientation and travel; and how to move safely and/or remain oriented at home, in school or the community. For those students who are eligible O&M services, an O&M specialist should oversee the provision of instruction and/or provide direct instruction.

In summary, the goal of O&M services is for students with visual impairments to become safe and independent travelers. Orientation and mobility is a necessary life skill for everyone. Effective orientation and mobility skills can assist students in the pursuance of their life goals, improvement in their quality of life and successful integration into society.