Mobility Education for Students with Visual Impairments: A Shared Responsibility.

This paper offers principles of mobility education for students with visual impairments, stressing that mobility training is a shared responsibility among teachers, parents, and the mobility specialist. It notes that the basis for mobility education is independent travel as a reachable goal, that the purposes include providing the child with a meaningful understanding of his environment and increasing self-confidence, and that advanced mobility education must be integrated with vocational education activities. A mobility program of six interdependent areas is described: (1) body image training, (2) sensory training, (3) indoor orientation and travel skill building, (4) outdoor mobility concept development and cane techniques, (5) outdoor mobility in the school and home neighborhoods, and (6) outdoor mobility in small business areas and public transportation. Eighteen specific suggestions for parents and school personnel to build mobility skills are offered. (DB)