Orientation and mobility specialists help people who are blind or low-vision learn to safely navigate their environments. Portland State University is one of a handful of schools nationwide that train these specialists, and the only school in the Northwest.
Research suggests that demand for orientation and mobility specialists will increase as more adults experience age-related vision impairments such as cataracts and macular degeneration.
Amy Parker is an associate professor at PSU and coordinator of the university’s Orientation & Mobility Program. Patricia Kepler is the accessibility analyst for the Portland Police Bureau. They join us to talk about the growing need for orientation and mobility services.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Orientation and mobility specialists help people who are blind or low vision learn how to safely navigate their environments. Only a handful of schools nationwide train these specialists. Portland State University is one of them, the only one in the Northwest.
Amy Parker is an associate professor at PSU and the coordinator of the university’s Orientation & Mobility Program. Patricia Kepler is the accessibility analyst for the Portland Police Bureau, the first person at PPB to have that job. They join us now to talk about the growing need for orientation and mobility services. Great to have both of you on the show.
Amy Parker: Thanks, Dave.
Patricia Kepler: Thank you for having us.
Miller: Patricia, first – I understand that you became blind at the age of 17 after complications from eye surgery. What was your first experience with orientation and mobility services?
Kepler: I grew up in Southern California, so I reached out to the Braille Institute in my community and they had certified O&M specialists on staff there. They connected me with Joe, who was amazing. He took me out on busy Southern California streets, taught me how to safely navigate my spaces and familiarize myself with unfamiliar areas, line up with traffic so that I can safely get across streets like the ones in front of Disneyland, which are pretty scary.
Miller: Do you remember some of those lessons in particular, the first time you were learning those skills? Clearly, you remember his name: Joe. What’s a particular lesson that still stands out to you decades later?
Kepler: The right way to hold on to a cane. I mean, it sounds like “oh, you just pull it out.” But especially if you’re a fast walker, as I am, hitting a crack in the sidewalk just right, you end up with some pretty bruised ribs. It gets caught, you’re going forward and it can be painful. So that’s the most basic, just even learning how to hold on to a cane so you’re not hurting yourself.
How to navigate different spaces, different curb heights, finding curb cuts, locating bus stops, doors, all of that stuff, what to listen for, how to rely on more than just one sense, how to listen for traffic, how to notice things under your feet, texture changes from pavement to grass or whatever. All of those pieces are so important to develop those skills.
Miller: That was at the very beginning, when you were 17, when you had become blind. When have you sought out the services of orientation and mobility specialists in the years since then?
Kepler: Any time there was a major change in my life. When I moved from California to Oregon … I went to college in McMinnville, so the commission for the blind sent an O&M specialist out there to familiarize me with the campus, familiarize me with the town. Then when I really relocated to the Portland area, they sent somebody else again so that I would know where to find my bus stops, where to find my grocery store, how to get to my kids’ schools. Anytime there’s a major change and you need to learn these basic things, what potential hazards that you’re not aware of, to get that information about a workaround.
Miller: Amy, what is orientation and mobility specialist training like? We’re talking to you because you’re the coordinator of this program that trains the people who are providing these services. So what is the training itself like?
Parker: We have a graduate certificate that people can add on to any bachelor’s degree at all. And that certificate involves taking classes where we go through methods, where we talk about theory, we talk about technology and tools, we talk about orientation and mobility for children, which is different from Patricia’s experience. So when someone is born blind, has low vision or is deafblind from birth, then they may need different things from their orientation and mobility specialists.
So we have a children’s class that focuses on: how do you observe a child and do really good assessments with their teachers and family members? How do you support family members so that they can reinforce and encourage orientation and mobility, encourage movement and safe movement throughout the child’s environment and throughout the day? Then we have a class that focuses on adults, for folks who become blind later in life. And that’s a different journey for somebody who has grown up and maybe functioned with vision as their primary navigation sense, and transitioning and maybe even redeveloping an identity. So we have wonderful classes like that.
One of our main classes – it’s kind of the heart and soul of the orientation and mobility program – is the cane class, or the advanced orientation and mobility program. And that is actually where my students come together with an instructor and work in small groups. And they go under blindfold or simulation, sometimes they even simulate deafblindness where there’s some hearing loss involved. And they learn to navigate under a blindfold. That is not to teach them to be a blind person, although I will say we do have professionals who have visual impairments themselves or blindness themselves who become orientation and mobility specialists themselves. But the goal for my students is not that they become blind travelers, but it’s that they learn that their bodies, minds and senses can be used in different ways, and that they reinforce in those that they serve, be they children or adults or young adults, that they can in fact navigate with tools and new techniques.
Then the students go into a practicum phase where they work in the field and they have to gain clinical hours in the field with a mentor. And they learn to teach, and they take good data, and they learn from the people that they serve in different agencies, like schools, in rehabilitation agencies or in VA hospitals. VA hospitals are actually a place that hire orientation and mobility specialists as well, in fact our field kind of grew out of the Veterans Administration services. When people came back from wars and they were blind, there was a priority around helping wounded soldiers get back to work and be integrated in society and life. So orientation and mobility actually started through the VA system.
Miller: What cues or maybe obstacles might a trained orientation and mobility specialist be aware of, be paying attention to, that the average sighted person might miss?
Parker: That’s a great question, Dave. We joke a lot about the shape of different intersections, about the accessibility that people encounter or don’t encounter at a curb where they’re going to make a safe crossing. We talk a lot about the accessible pedestrian signals, or those buttons that people encounter and they just think of them as a button that they push to get a crossing signal. But that is actually a huge part of having access to information for someone. There’s usually a locator tone on the better designed APS, or accessible pedestrian signal devices, where someone who actually is blind can find the device and activate it. Many of the devices now have vibratory features as well as auditory features, so someone can line up for a safer crossing. And then use their senses, use their canes, sometimes use an app to make safer crossings at intersections, which is a huge part of orientation and mobility – not the only part, but a big part.
Miller: Patricia, you mentioned the times in your life when you’ve sought out these services at various times, especially at times of some kind of geographic transition or life transition. Have you always been able to access the services you needed? Or have there been times when an agency or an organization near you just did not have the capacity?
Kepler: No, there have been times, in fact my more recent attempts, they don’t have the staff. There’s such a need, especially with our aging population, people with macular degeneration, other things, there’s so much need for orientation with mobility, that they just don’t have the staff to go out and do a lot of the follow up care that that many people need.
Miller: Amy, this gets to the pipeline that you are a part of creating. How common are these programs nationwide?
Parker: They’re really only about 14 nationwide that have active orientation and mobility programs. So that means that a chunk of my students come from Oregon to be prepared, and they come from different parts of Oregon, including rural Oregon. But they also come from Washington state, from Hawaii. This year we had a large group from Minnesota that came and joined our program. Because they recognized that many people were retiring in Minnesota, they recognized that there was a need and there isn’t an orientation and mobility program in the state of Minnesota. We also had students come from Louisiana and join us for the same reasons, because as Patricia said, the need is so great, both for young children and for working age adults, for seniors, for elders. There’s a huge need for orientation and mobility.
So our program is flexible in that it is largely online, except for that cane class that I talked about – of course that is in-person, intensive instruction. And then of course, the field-based component is in person, where somebody is teaching, with a mentor and getting that coaching and feedback, and hopefully getting feedback from those that they serve, feedback from people who are blind, have low vision or deafblind, about what’s working, and being responsive to that person. And each person is unique.
Miller: Patricia, you’ve served on the Oregon Commission for the Blind and the Oregon Disabilities Resource Council. How much did that work entail advocating for expanded services for orientation and mobility?
Kepler: There was always the additional request for independent living skills at the Commission for the Blind and just overall services, especially in the rural areas. Because they have – Amy, correct me – three offices statewide, the Commission for the Blind.
Parker: Yep, in Southern Oregon, in Salem and in Portland.
Kepler: So those in the rural areas in particular, they’re really struggling. And when you think about that, they also don’t have nearly as many of the other benefits of living in a city such as sidewalks and buses, so they need it more than anybody and it’s just not there.
Miller: What are the reasons for that?
Parker: I think there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that people who are blind, have low vision, or are deafblind are considered a low incidence disability. Even though I think that they’re actually undercounted, there are more people who have some visual impairment than even they may recognize.
The second factor, I think, is that they’re widespread, they’re spread across a large geography. So people who are blind or deafblind, low vision, can be born anywhere, and are born in different places and live in different places, and it happens across the board, it happens across different socioeconomic status, it happens across different races. So that’s a factor.
I also think that a factor is that it’s been hard sometimes from a policy standpoint to have the services recognize the need at a broader level. So that has taken a lot of advocacy. And my friend Patricia is a fabulous advocate. It’s taken a lot of work of blind leaders to speak up about these needs, and also parents of children who are blind or have low vision to say, “my child needs this,” to even know that this is an option sometimes. I think many pediatricians don’t know that orientation and mobility exists. Sometimes even school administrators, they may know vaguely that a child who is blind needs braille or uses a cane. But they may not recognize that this is actually a profession, orientation and mobility, and that someone can come and be a part of their school team or be a part of their region and provide services.
So I think those are some of the factors that lead to this scarcity.
Miller: Patricia, as I mentioned, you are now the accessibility analyst for the Portland Police Bureau. What does that job entail?
Kepler: I interact with the community, so I try to reach out to different disability groups to talk about their relationship with the police and try to get their feedback to improve that community connection. I also train professional and sworn staff on disability etiquette. And if there are any complaints in the community about either a discrimination complaint or a barrier, those are directed to me. And I reach out to whatever department in the bureau that needs to address it, to act as that liaison.
Miller: I think it’s fair to say that historically there has been a lack of trust between various disability communities and the police. Why did you want this job?
Kepler: Absolutely. That is exactly why. I have a long history, as Amy said, working as an advocate. My first job in Portland was at Independent Living Resources, where I was an independent living skills specialist, but also served as a representative on committees like the Commission for the Blind, the Oregon Disabilities Commission, the Committee for Accessible Transportation with TriMet. So I’m out there working with our different government agencies to improve access and inclusion for people with disabilities so that they do have that voice, so that they’re not isolated, they’re active in the community. They can do things like go to the Rose Festival, anything that’s happening and have that entrance, and not feel like a burden to those there. That’s just hugely important.
Miller: Amy, earlier this week, we talked to the director of the Oregon Deafblind Project about the complete cancellation of their federal funding. Have you seen anything similar for your work?
Parker: Oh, Dave, we have been really nervous about the continuation of our grants. We also receive federal grants from the Office of Special Education Programs. And it wasn’t until this week that we learned that officially our grants will be allowed to continue. And what these grants do is they support funding for my students, they support tuition and fees for my students. Actually, 65% of a $1.25 million grant that we have is for students. It’s to recruit new orientation and mobility specialists because of this great need. And we just learned that we will be allowed to continue our five-year grant cycles for two grants. So it was a huge relief.
And at the same time, we’ve been feeling a lot of sadness about what’s happening to programs like the Oregon Deafblind Project. There were actually eight other states that were impacted with these cuts that provide vital support to families, vital information to teachers, that help find the children and help make sure that they’re not overlooked no matter where they live.
So it’s been a real mixed emotional week for me personally, because at the same time, I’m relieved to be able to say to my students “Yes, your fall classes, you will have support. You don’t have to quit our program.” That was another real fear of the administration, some of the decisions around diversity, was actually targeting diversity. And diversity as we know relates to so many aspects of a human’s life, including disability, including blindness, low vision, deafblindness. So we felt fortunate to have missed this first round of cuts, simply so that our students can continue their journey to become orientation and mobility specialists.
Miller: Amy and Patricia, thanks very much.
Parker: Thank you, Dave.
Kepler: Thank you for having us.
Miller: Amy Parker is an associate professor at Portland State University and the coordinator of the university’s Orientation & Mobility Program. Patricia Kepler is now the accessibility analyst for the Portland Police Bureau.
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