Twenty-seven adults with mild to severe mental retardation were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: classroom instruction, community instruction, and facility-grounds instruction. Treatment procedures used with all three treatment groups resulted in significant improvement though procedures used with the facility-grounds group…

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.…

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 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)

The development of the Sonic Pathfinder, a new electronic travel aid, is described. The aim has been to produce an aid that gives the user useful information for safe, stress-free travel rather than to provide an electronic surrogate for vision. (Author/CL)