Like many other states, California is facing a daunting budget deficit, reportedly about $19 billion. Delayed budgets have held up the disbursement of money, affecting school programs in districts as well as at the California School for the Blind (CSB). The current financial constraints have had an impact on CSB's programs. Its department of seven…

These two studies assessed adapted orientation technology for promoting correct direction and room identification during indoor traveling by persons with multiple (e.g., sensory, motor and intellectual/adaptive) disabilities. In Study I, two adults were included who had severe visual impairment or total blindness and deafness and used a wheelchair…

This study compared the drop-off detection performance with the two-point touch and constant contact cane techniques using a repeated-measures design with a convenience sample of 15 cane users with visual impairments. The constant contact technique was superior to the two-point touch technique in the drop-off detection rate and the 50% detection…

This study evaluated a protocol that was developed to assess how beneficial electronic travel aids are for persons who are visually impaired. Twenty persons with visual impairments used an electronic travel device (Trekker) for six weeks to conform to the protocol, which proved useful in identifying successful users of the device. (Contains 2…

Persons with profound visual impairments and other disabilities, such as neuromotor and intellectual disabilities, may encounter serious orientation and mobility problems even in familiar indoor environments, such as their homes. Teaching these persons to develop maps of their daily environment, using miniature replicas of the areas or some…

Orientation and wayfinding are critical skills for successful mobility of people with visual impairments. The inability to perform these skills successfully may result in a person becoming lost, injured, and discouraged from further mobility. At times, it may be impossible to maintain orientation. The person may temporarily travel without cues…

The degree of acceptance of dog guides at public facilities, which is required by law in Japan, was investigated, and evidence of rejection was found. Japanese people with visual impairments who used dog guides reported higher daily stress levels than did those who did not use dog guides. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

This study assessed the ability of people with visual impairments to reliably detect oncoming traffic at crossing situations with no traffic control. In at least one condition, the participants could not hear vehicles to afford a safe crossing time when sound levels were as quiet as possible. Significant predictors of detection accounted for a…

Using the five-stage model of skill acquisition originally proposed by Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986), this study investigates the professional development of Rehabilitation Workers (RWs) in the UK through analysis of their practice in training people with a vision impairment in the area of orientation and mobility. From interviews with RWs a clearer…

This study evaluates the impact of using the software program AudioMetro, a tool that supports the orientation and mobility of people who are blind in the Metro system of Santiago de Chile. A quasi-experimental study considering experimental and control groups and using the paired Student's t in a two sample test analysis (pretest-posttest) was…

Persons who are deaf-blind represent a heterogeneous, low-incidence population of children and adults who, at some point in life, regardless of the presence of additional disabilities, may benefit from formal orientation and mobility (O&M) instruction. Current national policies, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, which emphasize that…

Every year on or near October 15, the California School for Blind celebrates National White Cane Day. Over the years, all kinds of events have been planned to celebrate the day. About two years ago, the school decided to do something different. Early that fall, staff members in the Orientation and Mobility Department at the school started teaching…

Five brief articles address aspects of travel and travel training for disabled persons. (GW)

A canal barge trip involving a group of 11- to 14-year-olds with moderate learning difficulties provided opportunities for leisure education, social skill learning, and information gathering and recording tasks. (CL)

To test ways of predicting how efficiently visually impaired children learn travel skills, a criteria checklist of spatial skills was developed for close-body space, local space, and geographical/travel space. Comparison was made between predictors of efficient learning including subjective ratings of teachers, personal qualities and factors of…