Orientation & Mobility
People with vision loss often experience fear and discomfort about their safety. Without the ability to move from one point to another using visual clues, they are often reluctant to move about their homes or travel throughout the community.
Orientation and mobility specialists receive advanced education and training to help people who are blind or experiencing low vision issues to move about their home, workplace, and community safely and comfortably.
If you are no longer able to avoid obstacles simply by looking around, an orientation and mobility specialist can help you gather information from your surroundings by using one or more of the following techniques: working with remaining vision; using another person as a sighted guide, using a white cane or a guide dog.
If you are experiencing any of the following problems, an orientation and mobility specialist may be able to help you:
- Bumping into things
- Difficulty seeing curbs or steps (loss of depth perception)
- Safely navigating at street crossings
- Reading bus numbers
- Walking safely at night or navigating in dimly lit areas
- Color or distance problems
- Seeing spots in the central vision
- Loss of visual field