Shortly before my second year of college, I received a few orientation and mobility lessons for learning how to navigate with low vision and a blindness cane. These lessons were helpful for learning general travel skills, but I noticed they didn’t get into specifics about navigating college campuses or using university resources available for students with vision loss. One lesson that would have been really helpful is learning how to navigate the inside of my dorm building and the dorms of friends, so I’ve created the College O&M series to share my most-used tips and strategies for learning about this topic and others. Here are my tips for learning how to navigate dorms and campus housing buildings with a blindness cane and without one.
Disclaimer
I am not a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS), and I strongly recommended working with a COMS from the state department for visual impairment or vocational rehabilitation to determine the appropriate mobility solution for individuals. The tips and strategies shared throughout this post are informed by my lived experiences using a blindness cane (white cane) on my college campus.
Did you have O&M lessons inside your dorm?
When I worked with a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS), I was told they were not allowed to go inside my dorm or campus housing for lessons, though they could give general travel suggestions on how to navigate dorm buildings or similar communal living spaces; several of my other friends with low vision were told the same thing. Other students have shared that their COMS was permitted to conduct lessons inside residence halls, as long as the student was with them at all times.
Policies on entering dorm buildings can vary depending on the university and/or agency that the COMS is affiliated with. Before scheduling O&M lessons inside dorms or campus residential spaces, ask housing/ResLife staff about visitor or training services, or contact Disability Services. Students may also be able to request O&M lessons in semi-public spaces such as entryways, lobbies, or common areas, if visitors are not permitted in the dorms. Even if formal O&M lessons cannot be conducted in the dorms, students can still build strong mental maps of their dorm buildings with intentional practice or apply travel skills and other strategies that they learn from their COMS in other campus spaces.
Another alternative to consider is requesting early move-in and conducting O&M lessons before most of the other students move into the dorms, or arranging for O&M lessons to take place during freshman orientation. This will require students to communicate with housing/ResLife staff in advance, but this is another option for receiving O&M lessons in the dorms.
Related links
- College Move-In Day and Low Vision
- My Talk At A Future Date: What I Wish I Learned About AT Before Starting College
First, make a list of important areas in the building
When I first move into a new dorm building, it helps me to make a list of important areas in the building and how to get to them. Since all of the dorm buildings I lived in had different layouts and amenities, writing the list during move-in week would help me orient myself to my new space and familiarize myself with different aspects of the building; since I often participated in early move-in, I could explore the building at a slower pace before the crowds of students arrive. Examples of locations I include on a list are:
- Building entrance/exit(s)
- Laundry room
- Common room
- Kitchenette
- Vending machines
- Filtered water station
- Resident Director office
- Trash/recycling room
- Resident Assistant office/room
- Hall bathroom
- Front desk or security desk
- Key card entrances
This may seem like a long list of locations, but a lot of dorm buildings have multipurpose spaces and these items aren’t all scattered across the building. For example, the kitchenette was part of the communal area in my friend’s dorm, or there were vending machines in the laundry room.
Related links
Locate the elevator and stairs, if relevant
With the exception of my freshman year, I lived on the ground floor in two different buildings and all of the building amenities were located on the ground floor as well; I never had to use the elevator or stairs in my building. Students who live above the ground floor or in larger residential buildings will need to identify:
- The closest staircase to their room
- The nearest elevator, including location of elevator controls/buttons
- Any secondary stairs or emergency-only exits
- Ramps or step-free entrances
Practicing routes to and from these locations several times before classes begin can reduce stress, especially during busy times such as fire drills or peak traffic hours. For emergency exits, it is also helpful to know what the nearest building is or if the emergency exit leads directly to a busy road or other high-traffic area. For example, depending on which emergency exit I used in one of my dorms, the nearest building was either another residential hall that was away from the roads, or a two-lane road with no crosswalk.
Learn floor layouts and hallways
Dorm hallways can be long, repetitive, and difficult to distinguish, so spending time learning how hallways connect and identifying shortcuts can reduce confusion later. When learning a floor layout, it helps to:
- Walk the entire hallway from one end to the other
- Count doors or rooms between major landmarks
- Notice carpet changes, wall textures, or acoustic differences (e.g. sound of the laundry room, echoing in a particular hallway)
- Identify intersections, T‑junctions, shortcuts or dead ends
All of the rooms on a hallway can look very similar, so it helps to have a unique identifier so that students can identify their own dorm room. This can include:
- Door decorations with high-contrast colors
- Tactile labels, bump dots, or textured tape on the door or handle
- Large-print or braille room numbers
- Adding art, a dry-erase board, or other item that can stand out.
In my case, my door stood out because it lacked a name label, while still having themed decorations added by my resident advisor. The resident advisor would decorate my door like the others on the hall and would write another word instead of my name. This isn’t something that would be necessary for every student who has a visual impairment, but this was put in place for safety reasons.
Related links
- How To Create Dorm Door Signs and Decorations For Low Vision
- How To Make A Dorm Room Completely Dark
- Building Identification: College O&M
Have important information documented on a device, or an Alexa skill
Early in college, I stored important dorm and housing information in the notes app on my phone. This included:
- Laundry machine instructions
- RA and emergency contact information
- Maintenance request procedures
- Dining hall hours and holiday schedules
- How to adjust the temperature in the dorm room
Later, I turned this information into a custom Amazon Alexa skill so I could access it hands‑free while in my room. Students can use whichever format works best for them; notes, to-do lists, voice assistants, or visual references with large print.
Related links
- How To Create A Custom Dorm Skill With Amazon Alexa
- Tips For Doing Laundry In College With Low Vision
- How I Keep Track of Assignments With Low Vision
Make use of landmarks when learning routes
Visual and non-visual landmarks are incredibly useful when navigating dorm buildings. For example, to get to the filtered water station I would walk past the fire safety board, turn left at the school logo poster, and turn right at the green couch before arriving at the water station.
When learning routes with my blindness cane (white cane), I take note of:
- Bulletin boards, fire safety signs, or display cases
- Furniture such as couches, tables, or water fountains
- Changes in lighting or flooring
- Sounds or large objects like vending machines, laundry equipment, or HVAC systems
- Paint colors or wall colors
I try to rely on landmarks that are unlikely to move during the semester, rather than temporary decorations or posters. For example, the poster with move-in instructions could be easily removed or taken down, but the fire safety board or the framed photo of campus likely would stay in the same place.
Related links
- Creating Accessible Bulletin Boards For College Dorms
- Learning To Navigate My Internship Building: PM Intern With Low Vision
- Finding College Classrooms: College O&M
Figure out where emergency exits are
Fire drills are common in campus housing, and knowing emergency routes ahead of time is critical. Students should:
- Locate the nearest emergency exit from their room
- Identify at least one alternate exit
- Practice reaching exits with and without a cane
- Ask housing staff about evacuation procedures for students with disabilities
The resident advisor or other staff members will likely go over this information in the first building meeting, but students that are moving into a new building during the semester may need to proactively ask about this information. Knowing where emergency exits were in advance and what they looked like (e.g., color of doors) was helpful on the day when I had to run out of my dorm without putting on my glasses first! (In full transparency, there was a small fire in the common area of my dorm)
Related links
Learn to navigate the building with and without a blindness cane
As I become more familiar with a dorm building, I don’t always need to use my blindness cane for short or well-known routes, such as going to the laundry room or taking out the trash. This is especially true for tasks that require two hands, but does not mean that I am less visually impaired. I never had any students in my dorm building express confusion over seeing me without my cane in the hallways.
As students become familiar with their dorms and navigating indoor environments, they may:
- Alternate between cane use and human guides
- Choose hands‑free options for certain tasks, or use other strategies like hand trailing to touch a wall
- Adjust strategies depending on lighting, fatigue, or crowds. Comfort levels will change over time, and that’s completely normal.
Related links
- Seven Places I Don’t Take My Blindness Cane
- Ten Things To Know About Going To College With A Blindness Cane
- What If I Lock Myself Out Of My Dorm?
Staying in the same dorm
Many students with visual impairments or other disabilities prefer to live in the same building for multiple years/semesters, instead of changing buildings every year. This is not typically an option for freshman housing, but upperclassmen can typically apply to stay in the same building and/or dorm room every year. If this is not possible, students may prefer to be in a dorm building that has a similar layout or that has a similar configuration to their previous dorm. While I did not live in the same building for the entirety of undergrad, all of the buildings I lived in were close together (less than a one-minute walk) so I didn’t have to learn new routes to other campus buildings every year.
Related links
Other tips for navigating a dorm building with vision loss
- When possible, I would ask friends to meet me at their building entrance instead of walking into their dorm building by myself, especially since every building was configured differently and I had trouble reading name labels on dorm decorations (unless I used my phone camera to zoom in, which could look suspicious if I was at the wrong dorm!). Learn more about how I talk to friends about my disability in How I Talk About Disability With New Friends
- Looking for campus move-in tips? I share several strategies in College Move-In Day and Low Vision
- As an undergrad student, I used the skills I developed in my assistive technology minor to make my dorm room more accessible and easy to navigate. Learn more in Dorm Room Disability Hacks For Chronically Ill Students
Published July 20, 2020. Updated July 2025