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Over the years, accreditation of higher education personnel preparation programs in the United States has undergone much change (Brittingham, 2009). This phenomenon has been paralleled by a similar process within the disciplines relating to visual impairment. During the past 5 decades, higher education programs preparing practitioners in the field of visual impairment have relied upon the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) program approval process that was administered by the AER (Wiener & Siffermann, 2010). In an attempt to ensure the quality of personnel preparation programs, practitioners within the disciplinary groups of AER took responsibility for reviewing the content and administration of these programs. These included orientation and mobility, vision rehabilitation therapy, teachers of students with visual impairment, low vision therapy, and recently, assistive technology. In 2018, the AER membership approved an amendment to the AER bylaws that established the AER Accreditation Council (AERAC) and gave it legal and functioning authority as an independent accreditation body (AER, 2021a). The AER program approval process for higher education programs was revised and upgraded to become a full accreditation program under the auspices of the AERAC (AER, n.d.). This article describes the evolution of the accreditation program within the national context, documents the history of accreditation within the field of visual impairment, and explores the relationship between accreditation and certification.

This article reports on a survey of orientation and mobility specialists who provide contracting services. During the spring of 2021 and again in the fall of 2021, an online survey was disseminated through social media and the Orientation and Mobility listserv asking for responses from individuals who have provided contracting services. The purpose of this study was to gather data on prevailing reimbursement rates across the country. A total of 293 surveys were used to form the basis for this article.

Introduction: Three early studies from 1974 to 2000 provided information on demographics and salient characteristics of the profession of orientation and mobility (O&M). The current study compared demographic information from those studies with data from a survey instrument administered in 2019. The purpose of this article is to examine changes in demographics that have emerged in the ensuing years. Method: The questionnaire was disseminated using Qualtrics. It was distributed to practitioners in the profession via all available professional electronic discussion groups and was advertised on the websites of the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals (ACVREP) and Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER). Findings: The number of O&M practitioners who responded to the survey was 628. Data indicate that the O&M profession is still predominantly Caucasian, and females continue to be in the majority and have expanded within the profession. The percentage of O&M practitioners working in school settings increased by 14% from earlier studies, and respondents had a median age of 41–50 years. Discussion: The results of this study show that the profession remains primarily female, mostly Caucasian, and 65% of practitioners are 41 year of age or older. O&M practitioners continue serving school-age students, thereby supporting results from previous studies. Finally, salaries of O&M practitioners have positively increased over time after accounting for inflation. Implications for Practitioners: Current characteristics of O&M practitioners have implications for recruitment of more diverse young professionals to serve the diversity of those they teach. It is evident the field should try to increase diversity within its ranks to mirror the diverse population they serve. Moreover, O&M salaries have kept pace or exceeded inflation, and thus the profession continues to be attractive in recruiting qualified and diverse professionals.

In 2003, Touch Graphics Company carried out research on a new invention that promises to improve accessibility to science museums for visitors who are visually impaired. The system, nicknamed Ping!, allows users to navigate an exhibit area, listen to audio descriptions, and interact with exhibits using a cell phone-based interface. The system relies on computer telephony, and it incorporates a network of wireless environmental audio beacons that can be triggered by users wishing to travel to destinations they choose. User testing indicates that the system is effective, both as a way-finding tool and as a means of providing accessible information on museum content. Follow-up development projects will determine if this approach can be successfully implemented in other settings and for other user populations.

The increasing number of hybrid and quiet internal combustion engine vehicles may impact the travel abilities of pedestrians who are blind. Pedestrians who rely on auditory cues for structuring their travel may face challenges in making crossing decisions in the presence of quiet vehicles. This article describes results of initial studies looking at the crossing decisions of pedestrians who are blind at an uncontrolled crossing (no traffic control) and a light controlled intersection. The presence of hybrid vehicles was a factor in each situation. At the uncontrolled crossing, Toyota hybrids were most difficult to detect but crossing decisions were made more often in small gaps ended by a Honda hybrid. These effects were seen only at speed under 20 mph. At the light controlled intersection, parallel surges of traffic were most difficult to detect when made up only of a Ford Escape hybrid. Results suggest that more controlled studies of vehicle characteristics impacting crossing decisions of pedestrians who are blind are warranted.

We gave pharmacologic doses of choline to patients with tardive dyskinesia in an attempt to suppress involuntary facial movements. Choline is the physiologic precursor of acetylcholine, and its administration elevates brain acetylcholine levels in laboratory animals and, possibly, in human beings. Hence, we thought that its use could benefit patients with diseases like tardive dyskinesia, which is believed to result from deficient central cholinergic tone. Twenty patients with stable baccal-lingual-masticatory movements took oral doses of choline for two weeks according to a double-blind crossover protocol. Plasma choline levels rose from 12.4 +/- 1.0 to 33.5 +/- 2.5 nmol per milliliter (mean +/- S.E.M.; P less than 0.001) during this period. Choreic movements decreased in nine patients, worsened in one and were unchanged in 10. Thus, oral doses of choline can be useful in neurologic diseases in which an increase in acetylcholine release is desired.

In matters scholastic the sole guide and inspiration has been tradition. Like the Chinese wall which barred from entry the civilizing influences of modern times, the tradition of conventional methods in education has generally frowned upon new thought and plans not based upon precedents. It is our purpose to break an opening in this Chinese wall of educational traditions by forcing through it humane, common-sense innovations on a vital matterhome study. Has it ever occurred to the teacher that he deals with living material souls ? If so, then let them be treated as something more than material which must perhaps, figuratively speaking, be molded and handled to suit the artificial conditions of traditional origin and present convenience. It is, as a matter of course, easier to move along beaten paths than to make new roads which in the end may prove more advantageous. Unfortunately many of us are not ready for new doctrines when we find that they mean more work for the teacher. If the creed, the schools are for the boys and girls and not for the teachers, except in so far as the teachers are there for the pupils, be accepted, you will have at least one basis for the statements and experience herewith presented. What a school is, does not require definition. The teacher is the important factor of the school. The modern teacher has too often, per force of tradition and method, become a mere automatic recitation-receiving device and a machine lesson-assigning apparatus. This implies that lessons are assigned to school attendants. Less than 50 per cent of the pupils, as teachers well know, do the unreasonable amount of home study required of them; the other 50 per cent "kill time" at school. Just bear this in mind, however. The municipality, the state, and the United States have established eight hours as the legal day for manual workers. I do not think it right or even humane that we educators should work young 526

A comparative study of methods of school administration and plans upon which the writer has for some time been engaged has left the impression that courses of study in high schools smack too much of similarity.