For many years, increasing caseloads for vision professionals have caused concerns about the impact on educational services. Average caseload sizes in the literature have remained fairly consistent across decades, with 19.5 students per professional in the 1980s (Pelton, 1986), 18 students in the 1990s (Griffin-Shirley, McGregor, and Jacobson,…

Introduction: The study presented here examines which haptic cues individuals with visual impairments use more frequently and determines which of these cues are deemed by these individuals to be the most important for way-finding in urban environments. It also investigates the ways in which these haptic cues are used by individuals with visual…

The orientation and mobility (O&M) profession is well established in Australia and New Zealand. This paper gives a situational analysis of O&M in these countries, including a brief history, an overview of professional training and current activity, and data gained from two censuses of the profession undertaken in 2002 and 2011. Social…

A single-participant multiple probe design across participants was used to evaluate the effectiveness of verbal rehearsal and graduated guidance to teach youth who were blind how to cross the street. This study replicated intervention procedures across settings along with the staggered entry of participants. Individuals learned to cross one or two…

The authors open this article by noting that there is substantial research evidence showing that ethnic culture affects how disability is perceived and managed, and that taking a person's culture into account maximizes the effectiveness of the person's education. Jill Bevan-Brown and Taingunguru Walker, address this gap in knowledge by…

Working with children who have multiple disabilities that include visual impairments can be especially challenging. Many disabling conditions manifest into behavioral difficulties that may take away from learning. Acting out may be a student's way of expressing a lack of healthy coping mechanisms in relation to his or her environment. Implementing…

Introduction: Development of a sensing device that can provide a sufficient perceptual substrate for persons with visual impairments to orient themselves and travel confidently has been a persistent rehabilitation technology goal, with the user interface posing a significant challenge. In the study presented here, we enlist the advice and ideas of…

In this writing related to neuro-plasticity, we are shown that changes in the brain can occur with repeated use of sensory stimuli, with both visual and motor interventions. Keeping these important scientific contributions in mind, I will briefly summarize why the choice of the arts-based DAT method of psychotherapy over traditional verbally based…

The goal of this study was to create an evaluation tool that would be the new standard for evaluating clinical competencies of interns in the field of orientation and mobility (O&M). Using results from previous research in this area, specific competency skills were identified and the O&M Clinical Competency Evaluation Matrix (CCEM) was developed.…

It may seem that deaf-blindness refers to a total inability to see or hear. However, in reality deaf-blindness is a condition in which the combination of hearing and visual losses in children cause "such severe communication and other develop mental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for…

In children, concepts develop in a spiral, with the child at the center. A positive self-concept begins within a responsive caregiving environment. Concepts build upon one another. The more ideas and memories that a child has about the way the world and relationships work, the easier it is to develop further ideas. Once a child realizes, for…

This report was released by the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) on January 23, 2008. Orientation refers to one's ability to determine his/her location and relationship with other objects in the environment. Mobility refers to one's ability to move about in the environment. Orientation and mobility training may be provided to…

This conference presentation examines concept development for congenitally blind students. It presents current research on best-practice for teaching this population. Examples of strategies to reinforce understanding of body concepts, spatial awareness, and positional language, while promoting mirroring, self regulation, and purposeful movement to…

Introduction: Vision loss influences both basic and instrumental activities of daily living. There is limited information, however, on the relationship between vision loss and leisure activities. The research presented here was part of a larger study that aimed to understand the importance of participation in leisure activities for those with…

Although individuals who are blind have used a stick or a cane for their independent travel since the early years of human history, designs for modern long canes did not appear until World War II, when the systematic long cane techniques were developed by Hoover (1962). Ergonomic factors, such as the length of the cane, may affect how well a cane…