White Cane Safety Day in the U.S. was first officially recognized in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson. This day is commemorated annually with a presidential proclamation. While sticks and canes had been used for centuries as tools to help blind people navigate safely, James Biggs from Bristol, England, claimed to have invented the white cane […]

Who Is the Orientation and Mobility Specialist? The orientation and mobility (O&M) specialist is a professional who has extensive training in teaching children to travel at home, at school, and in the community. O&M specialists often provide instruction to children with multiple disabilities. Sometimes this instruction is direct when they work with children regularly to […]

What Is Orientation & Mobility (O&M)? This area of the expanded core curriculum (ECC) focuses on two broad, interrelated components: orientation (knowing one’s position in relation to other things in one’s surroundings and keeping track of how these relations/positions change as one moves through the environment) and mobility (the physical act of moving from one […]

An orientation and mobility (O&M) assessment examines a child’s ability to travel safely indoors and outdoors, with or without assistance. An O&M instructor, a professional with specialized training in teaching travel skills and concepts such as spatial awareness, will conduct the assessment. Some TVIs are certified in O&M, while others have limited expertise and cannot […]