The COVID-19 pandemic has made life difficult for all of us. Despite facing many obstacles, we are also learning how to persevere and thrive in the face of this pandemic. Access to educational and training resources has been hit particularly hard by the virus. Instructors and teachers everywhere are rising to the challenge and finding ways to deliver their classes remotely. Online schools for Orientation and Mobility (O & M) with O&M specialists are also meeting this challenge head-on by using online tools to lend their expertise to others.
Orientation and Mobility is a profession that focuses on instructing individuals who are blind or visually impaired with safe and effective travel through their environment. Traditionally, O & M training takes place in person, but COVID-19 has made this type of service seem almost impossible. With a bit of creativity and ingenuity, however, we now have online schools for Orientation and Mobility available during the pandemic.
Braille Institute offers an introductory workshop called “O & M Basics and Human Guide Training.” This class will teach you about safety and human guide techniques. The workshop also covers best practices for interacting with and supporting individuals with vision loss while social distancing. You will also learn the O & M basics that the specialists use to assist in safe and efficient travel.
Another good source for information about O & M is the Perkins School’s e-learning website. Perkins includes resources from a variety of organizations, so it is a useful one-stop-shop to locate and access targeted information about O & M and other topics.
Please don’t let the pandemic prevent you from learning more about O & M! Check out all the online schools that are now available during the COVID-19 pandemic. Braille Institute’s online courses and workshops are all FREE, so please visit our website today to sign up.
1-800-BRAILLE (1-800-272-4553) | www.brailleinstitute.org
