This month’s tip from the O&M staff is something we drill into the kids in all their travel - on campus and off:  Anticipate and verify!

Many visually impaired students rely too much on residual vision or the immediate information of their cane’s encounters - simply reacting to encounters. For those with minimal vision or slow cane skills this can result in identifying objects/depth changes late and minimizing the mental (orientation) phase of travel.

Good travelers with minimal or no vision need to use all their senses to maintain orientation - verify present location and anticipate the next landmark/clue. O&M at ISVI focuses on the transferable skill of disciplined use of all senses to verify present location and anticipate the next verification information. Knowing how to get to specific locations off-campus is secondary.

Here is an example: "With your parallel traffic on the right side, proceed to the end of the block. Turn right and cross the street, parallel will now be on your left. Cross the street and proceed past the store and parking lot that will be on your right. Stop at the 1^st traffic light control you encounter."

By paying attention to the position of parallel traffic; the increasing presence of perpendicular traffic at the end of the block; the echo coming off the store on the right after the crossing the street; and the traffic pattern sequence at the light control - the student has enough information to both verify present position at all times and anticipate the next key verifier. If the student is able to retain and focus on their directions and use all their senses, they are able to execute routes.

It does require high cognitive thought process and problem solving skills to be an advanced traveler and a blind traveler with good spatial and environmental conceptual base can be a good traveler; but it does take discipline. Like sighted peers who use a map, the visually impaired traveler’s success requires advance planning and ability to anticipate and verify.

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