Program topics
O&M provided remotely or at a distance
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How has Covid-19 changed your O&M practices? Round Table discussion (Scheduled Monday late afternoon)
Tiffany Conrad
Gather with other O&M professionals to share successful strategies used in times of closures and upon returning to face-to-face instruction. How are you managing with virtual instruction, making progress on goals, keeping safe upon return, etc.
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Virtualizing Summer Camp (Scheduled Tuesday morning)
Kristy Plesscher and Erica Ihrke
This session will cover the processes considered for virtualizing a one-week summer camp with concentration in areas of O&M, leadership and social opportunity for teens with a visual impairment. Additionally, presenters will share lessons learned in the execution of the camp and ideas for future implementation of virtual learning to reach a wider audience of learners.
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Youth Group Instruction in the Virtual Environment (Scheduled Tuesday morning)
Samantha Kelly
In-person group O&M instruction may be limited for some time for our youth. Let's take a look at some ideas that have worked for providing group Orientation and Mobility lessons from baby playgroups to transition aged students. We will spend time sharing ideas and brainstorming solutions to some of the obstacles.
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TMAP - Building Environmental Literacy at a Distance (Scheduled Tuesday afternoon)
Greg Kehret,
Jennifer Huey,
Sarah McIntyre and
Steve Lowry
Gain an understanding of how to use the Tactile Maps Automated Production (TMAP) app to generate braille and tactile street maps of any address, and learn how to supplement Orientation & Mobility instruction using TMAP tactile maps effectively.
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Using Augmented Reality to enhance Orientation & Mobility instruction (Scheduled Monday afternoon)
NOTE: Space for this session may be limited, and it requires 15 minutes of preparation, to be completed by Sunday morning! See below.
Jack Mitchell and
Sean Tikkun
Games and consumer apps use Augmented Reality (AR) to add a layer of information or interactivity to everyday life. ARIS is an instructional tool that O&M instructors can use to enhance instruction.
In this workshop we will crowdsource the creation of AR intersection analysis lessons that participants can take and use anywhere.
(See below for preparation and deadline required for this workshop -- space may be limited).
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Practical Distance-Learning Experience and Discussion in Providing for Safety (Scheduled Tuesday afternoon)
Julie Wright and Don Mitchell
Julie Wright will share her experiences using distance-learning platforms to help four adult learners meet their goals through the team effort between each student, herself and her mentor, and
one of her students will share his personal experience with the process.
We will conclude with an in-depth discussion regarding providing for safety when using distance-learning platform -- we welcome your thoughts and ideas on this matter!
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Virtual Navigation
Sharisse Roberts
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Teaching street-crossing in CoronaVille with remote/socially-distanced instruction
Dona Sauerburger, Susan Kinyatti and Anthony Lanzilotti
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On and Off The Grid
Cristina Dumitru and Lauren Herring
Assessment
- Birth to 6 O&M Skills Inventory (B6OMSI): research and practice (Scheduled Tuesday late afternoon)
Sarahelizabeth Baguhn
The B6OMSI-Research Edition now has established content validity! This workshop will begin with a brief presentation of the research and its implications, followed by training on how to use the B6OMSI. Participants will leave with an understanding of how to use this assessment to document the development of O&M skills in young children.
- Tracking Client Improvement (Scheduled Monday morning)
Kristy Plesscher and Leslie Hoskins
Discussion on the research-based structure that is being used to track clients’ independent travel skills pre and post O&M instruction at Leader Dogs for the Blind. Converse about the need to track clients’ skill levels, the data collection method, and how the insights discovered will be used moving forward.
- O&M Assessments: Current Practices and Where We Need to Go (Scheduled Tuesday afternoon)
Justin Kaiser and Tina Herzberg
The presentation will share the results of an electronic survey completed by O&M specialists about the procedures, forms, and tools that they use when conducting O&M assessments with children and youth. Come discuss the implications of this study on the field of O&M and how the pandemic is affecting your assessment practices.
Canes
O&M Standards and policy
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Support Canes: Where do you stand? (Scheduled Monday morning)
JoAnne Chalom and Margaret Winn
The AER O&M Division created a professional Issues Committee on Support Canes after being tasked with determining if practitioners should consider using support canes. Two questionnaires were created, presented and disbursed. Learn the results of these questionnaires and participate in discussion and the committee's plan moving forward.
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Validating Standards, Yes, it’s possible: O&M Career, College and Community Readiness Standards (Scheduled Monday afternoon)
Kathryn Botsford, Justin Kaiser and Shannon D. Darst
This session presents statistical validation methods and results of five Orientation and Mobility College, Career, and Community Readiness Standards: Concept Development; Sensory Development; Orientation and Mapping; Travel Techniques; and Communication, Personal Safety and Advocacy. Session participants will work in groups to explore the intersection of educational standards, assessment, and curriculum.
Psycho-Social Issues
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Integrating "intrinsic coaching" strategies with the stages of long cane training (Scheduled Tuesday afternoon)
Ryan Peterson
The stages of readiness and tenants of intrinsic coaching will be applied to the way instructors teach mobility and long cane skills, and we will explore the parallel between self-determination and client-centered goals, and learn strategies to promote a model for "intrinsic empowerment" for development of life-long mobility goals.
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Curbing Loneliness through O&M (Scheduled Tuesday morning)
Paul Olson
The Covid-19 Pandemic has highlighted the high incidence of loneliness in society. Loneliness is not a new issue for people with visual impairment. Orientation and Mobility Specialists are in a position to honestly discuss and assist students/clients design instruction and long-term goals that will help people manage this negative life condition.
Recreation / Outdoors
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Blind Adventure Camp: The Movie (Scheduled Monday morning)
Jay Hardwig and Rod Murphy
It's movie time! In this session, we'll screen Blind Adventure Camp, a 25-minute documentary filmed at the 2016 SEE Adventure Camp in North Carolina.
We’ll follow with a discussion of the film's themes, including confidence and community, risk and reward, and the weight of public perception.
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Virtualizing Summer Camp
Kristy Plesscher and Erica Ihrke
Street crossing
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Driver Yielding to Pedestrians (Scheduled Monday late afternoon)
Part I: Risk and the impact of the built environments
Part 2: Risk and pedestrians control over drivers
Robert Wall Emerson and
Eugene Bourquin
Serious risk to blind pedestrians at street crossings comes nearly exclusively from drivers who do not stop or slow down. This series of sessions addresses these issues.
- PART 1: Many variables of our built environment present greater or lesser risk.
In this part, presenters will review some of the major variables to consider when deciding where to cross and some of the science of why drivers do not yield.
- PART 2: Until recently, the factors that influence drivers’ yielding were considered mostly external to the traveler.
This part presents the latest findings which can be applied directly to O&M practices at crosswalks.
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Teaching street-crossing in CoronaVille with remote/socially-distanced instruction (Scheduled Monday afternoon)
Dona Sauerburger, Susan Kinyatti and Anthony Lanzilotti
We’ve all had to be creative to teach during the pandemic! In this session, an O&M specialist, a blind learner, and a university O&M student will share their experiences with teaching / learning
street-crossing skills and concepts remotely, followed by in-person assessment and instruction with adaptations to follow CDC guidelines with social distancing.
Technology / Apps / GPS
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GPS Navigation Apps -- Instructional Strategies (Scheduled Monday morning)
Marie Trudelle and Katt Jones
This session will provide a framework for evaluating a students' O&M skills, goals, travel environment, and assistive technology skills. This information will guide the O&Ms the GPS selection process. The session will also introduce tips for backchaining and scaffolding GPS instruction.
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GPS Navigation Apps -- Explore The Features (Scheduled Tuesday late afternoon)
Marie Trudelle and Katt Jones
Come learn about the function, features, and limitations of GPS Navigation Apps. We will explore Soundscape, Blindsquare, Apple Maps, Google Maps, and the Victor Reader Trek, with video demonstrations to highlight key features of each app.
Student case studies will reveal how emerging and advanced travelers can utilize various features within each application.
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Indoor Navigation for All (Scheduled Tuesday late afternoon)
Mike May and Evelyn Tichenor
Learn about emerging indoor navigation and positioning technology that makes buildings and public venues accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.
* NOTE: Presenter has financial connection with products or services that will be highlighted in this session.
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Virtual Navigation (Scheduled Monday afternoon)
Sharisse Roberts
Participants will learn about virtual orientation and navigation techniques, including virtual platforms, smartphone apps, online non-visual mapping and route planning. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss various ages of clients and technical skills to be able to better meet the needs of their clients in a hybrid (online and limited in-person) or fully virtual lesson model.
* NOTE: Presenter has financial connection with products or services that will be highlighted in this session.
Travel Instruction
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The Role of the O&M in Providing Travel Instruction for Persons with Non-Visual Disabilities: A Round Table Discussion (Scheduled Tuesday late afternoon)
John Ford, Michael Beigay and Jay Furlong
It’s possible that an O&M could be asked to provide Travel Instruction to sighted persons with Intellectual Disabilities. This open discussion will reference the AER O&M position paper: “Orientation and Mobility Specialists and the Provision of Travel Instruction to Individuals to Individuals with Nonvisual Disabilities”(adopted September 29, 2013).
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Travel Instruction for Individuals with Non-Visual Disabilities: Independent Travel (Scheduled Tuesday afternoon)
John Ford, Michael Beigay and Jay Furlong
For persons with Intellectual Disabilities it is helpful to have an established process wherein the progress of the person can be documented and monitored. The scenario to be discussed will be for a person who must travel to their employment via public transportation. The session will provide guidance for the development of a consistent multi-phased process.
Augmenting O&M skills with games and apps
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Using a Murder Mystery Game to enhance Orientation and Mobility Skills (Scheduled Monday late afternoon)
Natalie Perzylo
How do you combine tactile clues, map-reading, navigating the environment, listening skills, soliciting assistance, questioning techniques, and technological know-how in a holistic way for blind and visually impaired clients? By creating a murder mystery for them to solve, of course!
Come share ideas for a murder mystery for your own learners!
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On and Off The Grid (Scheduled Monday morning)
Cristina Dumitru and Lauren Herring
This session will present how to use a simple grid / graph paper to create map activities and much more,
such as imaginary shopping trips, virtual travels in the neighborhood, increase map reading skills, directionality, and problem solving.
It can be used in a distance learning situation -- let's improve our students' O&M/ECC skills from our desk!
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Using Augmented Reality to enhance Orientation & Mobility instruction
Jack Mitchell and
Sean Tikkun
Miscellaneous
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Non-ambulatory O&M training: Round Table discussion (Scheduled Tuesday late afternoon)
Deena Recker
Do people who are unable to independently move through the environment need O&M training? The answer is a resounding YES! This discussion will focus on the O&M skills needed by everyone to understand, interpret and interact with the world around them.
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Pandemics, visual impairment and how to navigate the new normal - ROUNDTABLE (Scheduled Tuesday morning)
Doug Gilbert and Kate Pounds
This Roundtable discussion will begin with a brief introduction about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted blind and visually impaired people's ability to travel and conduct essential business, presented by blind travelers in the U.S. and the U.K.
Participants will then be invited into a conversation about difficulties and strategies to cope with them.
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Independent Living Skills for the Young Child (Scheduled Monday afternoon)
Nancy Kirby and Sue Caruso
Independent Living Skills (self-feeding, dressing, bathing/grooming/toileting - birth-5)
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Exhibitors' Highlights
This session can give you a preview of what to expect in the exhibits, as each vendor explains what is at their table.
[Session will be prerecorded and available by December 1 -- watching it will provide ACVREP-approved credit.]
Schedule
Yes, the program is extensive and the day will be long so we can accommodate different time zones, but don’t worry about being overloaded.
We built in lots of breaks
so you can catch your breath or get your lunch/dinner, or plunge back into the conference to visit friends in the lounge and see what’s new at the exhibits!
SUNDAY EVENING, December 13, 2020
MONDAY December 14, 2020
10:00-11:00 SESSION A-1 (1 hour)
11:10-12:10 SESSION A-2 (1 hour)
- 12:10 - half-hour break (lunch for Atlantic coast)
12:40-2:10 SESSION B-1 (90 minutes)
- 2:10 - half-hour break (lunch for Pacific coast)
2:40-4:10 SESSION B-2 (90 minutes)
- 4:10 - half-hour break (early dinner for Atlantic coast?)
4:40-5:55 SESSION C-1 (75 minutes)
6:15-7:30 SESSION C-2 (75 minutes)
TUESDAY December 15, 2020
10:00-11:00 SESSION D-1 (1 hour)
11:10-12:10 SESSION D-2 (1 hour)
- 12:10 - half-hour break (lunch for Atlantic coast)
12:40-2:10 SESSION E-1 (90 minutes)
- 2:10 - half-hour break (lunch for Pacific coast)
2:40-4:10 SESSION E-2 (90 minutes)
- 4:10 - half-hour break (early dinner for Atlantic coast?)
4:40-5:55 SESSION F-1 (75 minutes)
6:15-7:30 SESSION F-2 (75 minutes)
If so, you will need to complete about 15 minutes of preparation by Noon EST on Sunday.
Sean and Jack plan to share an example interactive Augmented Reality activity with each of you before their session and then, during their workshop, you will have the opportunity to customize the activity for yourself.
Space may be limited if the response is overwhelming -- seats will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis, so the sooner you submit your preparations, the better.
To prepare, you will need to complete two steps: