Orientation and Mobility Curricula & Resources

Contents of this page:

Orientation and Mobility Curricula

  • TAPS: An Orientation & Mobility Curriculum for Students with Visual Impairments

Orientation and Mobility Resources

  • The Art and Science of Teaching Orientation and Mobility to Persons with Visual Impairments
  • Concept Development for Visually Handicapped Children: A Resource Guide for Teachers and Other Professionals Working in Educational Settings
  • English/Spanish Basics for Orientation and Mobility Instructors
  • Foundations of Orientation and Mobility
  • Finding Wheels: A Curriculum for Nondrivers with Visual Impairments for Gaining Control of Transportation Needs
  • Hand in Hand: Essentials of Communication and Orientation and Mobility for Your Students Who Are Deaf-Blind. 2 Vols.
  • The Hill Performance Test of Selected Positional Concepts
  • Independence Without Sight or Sound: Suggestions for Practitioners Working with Deaf-Blind Adults
  • Orientation and Mobility Techniques: A Guide for the Practitioner.
  • "Simon Says" Is Not The Only Game

TAPS: An Orientation & Mobility Curriculum for Students with Visual Impairments

R. Pogrund, G. Healy, K. Jones, N. Levack, S. Martin-Curry, C. Martinez, J. Marz, B. Roberson-Smith, & A. Vrba. (1993). TexasSchool for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Austin. 364 pp.

This curriculum is primarily intended for students ages 3 to 21 who are blind or who have low vision. It is appropriate for students who also have other disabilities and can be used in all settings. It includes a Screening Instrument, Comprehensive Assessment and Ongoing Evaluation, functional mobility tasks, educational goals and objectives, and teaching strategies.

Subjects Covered:

  • Using the curriculum for program development
  • Educational goals and objectives with teaching strategies for the home/living environment, campus environment, residential environment, commercial environment, and public transportation

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The Art and Science of Teaching Orientation and Mobility to Persons with Visual Impairments

W. H. Jacobson. (1993). American Foundation for the Blind, New York. 200 pp.

The chapters in Unit One cover environmental and spatial concepts and the specified skills that persons who are visually impaired need to begin traversing familiar indoor environments as well as procedures for walking with a sighted guide. Unit one also covers walking without assistance using self-protection techniques. This section is for aspiring o&m instructors as well as classroom teachers of children with visual impairment, special education teachers, rehabilitation teachers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses and aides to these professionals. Unit Two discusses how the o & m instructor teaches the student to use the cane in various familiar and unfamiliar indoor and outdoor settings.

Subjects Covered:

  • Teaching orientation and mobility
  • Maintaining one's orientation in space
  • Basic techniques for guiding a person with a visual impairment
  • Self-protection techniques: Moving throughout the environment independently
  • Basic long cane and self-familiarization skills
  • Advanced indoor orientation and mobility skills
  • Basic outdoor orientation and mobility skills
  • Intermediate outdoor orientation and mobility skills
  • Advanced outdoor orientation and mobility skills
  • Special situations and conditions and mobility devices
  • Creative approaches
  • Professional issues

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Concept Development for Visually Handicapped Children: A Resource Guide for Teachers and Other Professionals Working in Educational Settings

W. T. Lydon & M. L. McGraw. (1985). American Foundation for the Blind, New York. 69 pp.

This guide offers a framework for concept development for children who are visually impaired from kindergarten on.

Subjects Covered:

  • The importance of concept development
  • The multiply handicapped blind child
  • Conceptual development
  • Orientation and mobility terms
  • Body image of blind children, screening
  • Basic mobility skills and techniques
  • Room orientation

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English/Spanish Basics for Orientation and Mobility Instructors

C. J. Foy. (1991). American Foundation for the Blind, New York. 78 pp.

This book was written as a teaching aid for orientation and mobility instructors to supply the vocabulary that instructors might use to teach students in Spanish.

Subjects Covered:

  • The techniques: Sighted guide, forearm protection, turns, aligning and squaring off, familiarization with a room, familiarization with a hallway, cane skills, diagonal cane technique, touch technique, outdoors, transportation
  • The appendices: Causes of blindness, handicaps, sensory training, conceptual development, the compass, shopping, the telephone
  • The dictionaries: Diccionaria Espanol/Ingles, English/Spanish Dictionary

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Foundations of Orientation and Mobility

R L. Welsh & B. B. Blasch, Eds. (1980). American Foundation for the Blind, New York. 672 pp.

This book is a presentation of the origins, history and present state of orientation and mobility. This text is an effort to express in one volume much of the background information considered relative to mobility training along with how this information is useful to mobility specialists.

Subjects Covered:

  • Environmental orientation and human mobility
  • Kinesiology
  • Perception
  • Locomotion and orientation
  • Tactual and haptic perception
  • Audition
  • Low vision
  • Psychosocial dimensions
  • Concept development
  • Orientation aids
  • Mobility devices
  • Additional handicaps
  • Training for persons with functional mobility limitations
  • Environmental modifications
  • Educational aspects
  • Administrative aspects
  • Dog guides
  • Originators of orientation and mobility training
  • The profession of orientation and mobility
  • Research and the mobility specialist

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Hand in Hand: Essentials of Communication and Orientation and Mobility for Your Students Who Are Deaf-Blind. 2 Vols.

K. M. Heubner, J. G. Prickett, T. R. Welch, E. Joffee, Eds. (1995). American Foundation for the Blind, New York. Vol. 1 687 pp., Vol. 2 136 pp.

These materials are designed to provide basic knowledge and skills regarding the effects of deafblindness on instruction and interaction, strategies for instruction and interaction, ways to assist staff members and families working with students with deafblindness, detailed information on the development of communication and orientation and mobility skills, discussion of important concepts such as transdisciplinary teaming and ecological models, and lists of resources.

Subjects Covered:

  • Implications for learning
  • Basic concepts of communication
  • Communication systems, devices, and modes
  • Manual and spoken communication
  • Written communication
  • Assessment of communication skills
  • Choosing systems and modes of communication
  • Strategies for classroom and community
  • Movement
  • Effective service delivery
  • Approaches to teaching orientation and mobility
  • Transition to adult life

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The Hill Performance Test of Selected Positional Concepts

E.W. Hill. (1981). Stoelting co. Chicago, IL. 37 pp.

This is an individually administered test designed to assess specific positional concepts with visually impaired children ages 6 through 10. It consists of 72 perdformance items divided into four parts.

Subjects Covered:

  • Identify positional relationship of body parts
  • Demonstrate positional concepts by moving varoious body parts in relationship to another
  • Demonstrate positional concepts by moving the body in relationship to objects
  • From object-to object relationship

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Independence Without Sight or Sound: Suggestions for Practitioners Working with Deaf-Blind Adults

D. Sauerburger. (1993). American Foundation for the Blind, New York. 194 pp.

This is a book about method and techniques for teaching deafblind people as well as an integrated study of the needs of deafblind people. There are numerous examples form actual experience and discussions of practical applications.

Subjects Covered:

  • Communication
  • Methods of communication
  • Communication with strangers and the public
  • Interaction with the public
  • Isolation
  • Assertiveness and control over one's life
  • Orientation and mobility training
  • Street crossings
  • Teaching orientation and mobility to people with limited language skills
  • Instructions for making a mobility muff
  • Experiments in sensory deprivation
  • Survey of Dog Guide Schools

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Orientation and Mobility Techniques: A Guide for the Practitioner.

E. W. Hill & P. Ponder. (1976). American Foundation for the Blind, New York, 115 pp.

This book is an attempt to collect and codify the techniques used in orientation and mobility instruction. It is intended primarily for the practicing orientation and mobility specialist. Classroom teachers, rehabilitation teachers and other professionals will find certain sections of the book valuable when used under the direction of a qualified orientation and mobility specialist.

Subjects Covered:

  • Orientation
  • Sighted guide
  • Self-protection
  • Cane skills
  • Outdoor unit: residential
  • Outdoor unit: commercial

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"Simon Says" Is Not The Only Game

B. Leary & M. von Schneden. (1982). American Foundation for the Blind, New York. 139 pp.

This is a compilation of activities that teach various concepts that are necessary for traveling without vision, among them body awareness, body planes and parts, and laterality and directionality.

Subjects Covered:

  • Games
  • Songs

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Finding Wheels: A Curriculum for Nondrivers with Visual Impairments for Gaining Control of Transportation Needs

Authors: Anne L. Corn and L. Penny Rosenblum, 2000, PRO-ED Inc. Austin, TX: 103 pages

This curriculum is designed for teachers, O&M specialists, and families to use with adolescents and young adults with visual impairment as they explore their transportation options as nondrivers. Finding Wheels has 10 units containing objectives for nondrivers, supporting information on the topic, and a list of suggested activities for nondrivers to further explore the topic. Scenarios of adolescent and adult nondrivers and low vision drivers are used throughout the curriculum to illustrate key points and the variety of options available for nondrivers. The curriculum can be used in a group setting such as a classroom, summer program, or after school club. It can also be used on an individual basis. It is an appropriate alternative to driver's education classes.

Subjects Covered:

  • understanding visual impairment and implications for nondriving
  • personal transportation options
  • public transportation options
  • hiring drivers
  • specialized methods of transportation
  • low vision driving
  • budgeting for transportation
  • planning for transportation
  • coping with frustration as a nondriver