Orientation and Mobility

When I first started using a blindness cane, I wasn’t sure what kind of cane tip to purchase for my first cane, and had just been told to buy something before I started college. I ended up buying a random pencil cane tip on Amazon…

When I interned for a major technology company in 2019, one of the most important “soft” skills I had to learn in my first few weeks was how to navigate my internship building and hallways independently with low vision. Like most corporate buildings, this building…

As a student with low vision who uses a blindness cane/white cane to navigate unfamiliar environments, I find it helpful to use either a human guide or a visual interpreter when I travel to conferences, walk around exhibit halls, or attend fairs and smaller events…

In March 2019, the Google homepage highlighted the 52nd anniversary of when tactile pavement was first installed in Okayama City, Japan, which literally paved the way for other cities and countries to incorporate brightly colored pavement with raised dots and lines into different environments to…

How to be a human guide for someone with low vision and avoid having them walk into a pole

Hotel familiarization is a part of navigating travel experiences for blind and low vision visitors, and provides an opportunity to guests to learn about their room layout and other hotel amenities. Whether it’s for an overnight medical trip, out-of-state school field trip, or a long-term…

I started using a blindness cane (also known as a white cane) full-time during my first semester of college while living on campus. As a student with low vision, using a cane gave me a tremendous amount of freedom and independence, accompanying me everywhere from…

Important addresses to keep in college, great for orientation and mobility instruction

One of the common misconceptions I first believed when buying my first blindness cane is that all canes are one size fits all, and that the process of choosing a cane is as easy as choosing a random item online and checking out. However, I…

To celebrate White Cane Safety Day on October 15th, I had the opportunity to collaborate with WonderWord word search puzzles to create a blindness cane themed word search that introduces players to common terminology associated with white canes as well as orientation and mobility (O&M)…

In 2018, I was selected as one of ten winners for the Microsoft Women in Computing award and had the opportunity to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing. This conference is held in September/October and is the largest gathering of women and…

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…