Orientation and Mobility Specialist

What is an Orientation and Mobility Specialist?

Duties

The duties of an orientation and mobility specialist can include the following:

• Performing orientation and mobility evaluations with a focus on long-term and short-term students’ progress in movement, in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
• Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of students at an ongoing basis, and provide an estimation of the duration of services needed to achieve goals.
• Providing consultation and knowledge-sharing services to student relatives, educators, teachers, physical therapists and other school personnel regarding orientation and mobility skills.
• Working with teachers of students with visual impairment for carrying out functional vision assessments for the case of independent travel demands.
• Empowering students with relevant skills to travel in a safe and confident manner when encountering both unfamiliar and familiar environments.

Day in the life

Orientation and mobility specialists mainly focus on teaching clients’ other alternatives to using sight, in terms of navigating their daily environments. A day in the life involves meeting and working with a wide range of individuals that are suffering from vision loss.

Whether it is teaching students about their basic body image or acclimatizing them to independent travel in all kinds of places, concept development plays a significant part in the techniques adopted by specialists. In a day, one may have an appointment with a college student group to teach them skills that help them find classes, the cafeteria or the library on their campus better. Another appointment might involve teaching a visually impaired person to safely cross an intersection when commuting to work every day.

Some part of the role also includes providing counseling to individuals and spreading awareness about supporting visually impaired persons’ mobility. As an orientation and mobility specialist, you will have to give advice to city planners and administrators with regard to developing mindful road designs that account for visually impaired pedestrians.

Work schedule and typical hours

Orientation and mobility specialists typically work full-time and have the opportunity to pursue work outdoors as well as indoors. They are exposed to various environments such as schools, homes, veteran hospitals, assisted living facilities, rural as well as urban communities.

Since much of the work requires coordinating with administrators, students, government agencies and medical professionals, the working hours can vary depending on the type of workload and impending deadlines. It is often necessary for the specialist to travel out of office, in order to meet with clients where appropriate.

Growth of the job

The job outlook for orientation and mobility specialists is extremely positive, with demand expected to rise as the school-age population increases and there is greater investment in specialised services for students with disabilities. With an aging population, the number of blind and visually impaired individuals is also expected to increase.

Specialists can expect to advance and become supervisors of assistant positions at large departments. At some facilities, one can eventually become executive director or rehabilitation service providers.

Typical employers

The orientation and mobility sector is a dynamic and growing area, which allows specialists to function in different professional contexts like residential schools for visually impaired students such as California School for the Blind or Kansas State School for the Blind; non-profit organisations such as Vision Institute of South Carolina, Inc. or the American Foundation for the Blind; government agencies like the Commonwealth of Virginia; and independent contractors such as Sunbelt Staffing.