Abstracts of the 2018 Dutch Mobility Conference

Now-a-days navigating is easier than ever. You take your smartphone, open a navigation app, fill in where you want to go to and the app leads the way. For visually impaired, that may bring more freedom of movement. In this workshop I will give you a summary of opportunities and issues of navigating with a smartphone for visually impaired through providing a chance to experience the process yourself.

When someone does not exercise the right for mobility, it may be possible that he/she is in the middle of loss processing which has a negative influence on initiating training. In particular, not starting training may be coping mechanism for a child and/or parent(s) being confronted with the loss of sight of the child.

Loss of visual function calls for answers from the child and his environment in terms of learning compensating skills, perseverance, self-trust and learning to be confronted with the consequences of loss of visual functions in all areas of life. In this workshop we will connect mobility with loss processing and coping.

Do people with a severe multiple impairment ever have mobility questions? This is not always very clear and how do you find this out as an O&M teacher? In recent years, the O&M department in Doorn Holland has worked with residential groups and their presentation show filmed examples and cases of teachers explaining how they support clients with a severe multiple impairment and their supervisors. We will also look at how to make a mobility plan and the supervising its progress.

Which information of the surrounding area do we get in via our senses? What happens when we are missing one or more senses? What information do we miss and how does this influence our orientation and making choices?

Missing information through sense impairment may be compensated by other senses, cognitive and motor skill functions. Inclusive design considers this and generates the outdoor space in a way that everybody can find and follow their way.

GoSense (France) is very proud to present Rango, the brand-new 3D audio smart cane that is already used by 150 French visually impaired, aged 15 to 80 years. Rango is a light and robust electronic device that creates a smart virtual shield in front of the user as soon as it is fixed on a cane. Because ease of use is essential in order for the device to be used by all, Rango reduces the number of feedback to the bare minimum, only identifying the obstacles that represent danger. GoSense is also very pleased to present Wizigo, a community-based GPS application that can be used simultaneously with Rango to offer safety, localization and orientation in a single solution.

This presentation discusses World Wide Vision role on providing information about all kind of canes, tips and rolling tips with a focus on material knowledge, product knowledge and use. There will also be instruction on the use of orCam MyEye 2.0, a mobile wireless reading machine (both nearby and faraway) which can be used for recognizing faces and subjects, reading barcodes, money and colors and time notification.

With increasing use of technology, it is now possible for people with a visual impairment to find their way independently indoors. However, uniform instructions for this technology need to be considered. Is it possible to formalize standard adaptations for the whole group?

The Wayfindr Standard focuses on indoor navigation helped by digital technologies and specifically looks at when and what information is given and how it is put in words. It takes into account the great diversity of visually impaired with variations in needs and adaptations. In this workshop we will use the Wayfindr to analyze a short route and suggest possible uniform instructions.

As soon a child learns to move, its world grows bigger and the adventure begins. For children with visual impairment however, this adventure can be associated with danger and thus these children may miss opportunities which their fellow agers get in a natural way. How do you monitor these kind of development problems and what can we do as professionals? In this workshop we take a look at the developments within Visio and Bartimeus in case of mobility of children under six. We also will discuss several observation lists that may be of help in the exploration phase and give direction to the training of young children with visual impairment.

Most O&M instructors have encountered this: a child who never practices between the classes or a partner who always gives a client an arm outdoors and does not allow them to practice their mobility skills. This is a significant challenge and thus this workshop provides a different perspective, with a parent and a partner present, to whom questions can be asked on this topic. We will also discuss family systems.

In this workshop you will experience EyeBeacons: the accessible navigation app of the future. The app provides improvements on users’ interface, navigation (instructions), preparation and personalization of the route. The app uses new forms of feedback on a Smartwatch and Bone Conducting Headset. We created this app together with people with a visual impairment and O&M teachers. Experience and decide whether this is the navigation app of the future.

This workshop explores some deeper possibilities of echo localization through the stories of an experienced person – Nursel Günal. Nursel has been blind from birth and has 30 years’ experience with walking with a cane and using echo localization. She will share her experiences with examples from her cane walking practice and specifically her echo localization. We will also look to offer echo localization in O&M training by professionals.

Someone with visual impairment must be able to participate in the society. For this to occur, accessibility of public space and buildings are of great importance. Our mission is to make every building and public space in Holland logical, findable and usable for people with visual impairment. In this workshop we will demonstrate some recently accessibility projects of Bartimeus including improving accessibility of museums, care homes and communities.

Orientation of a new building demands a lot of energy of someone with a visual impairment and it often can be complicated to form a good view of buildings and spaces, and routes in between. Bartimeus, Technical University Eindhoven and Accessibility have cooperated to research the requirements of an accessible scale model. We will show you the outcomes of the project from a tactile vocabulary to testing the prototype with users. Finally, we show you how we made the prototype and how you can make one yourself.

A client has an impairment in seeing and hearing (deafblind) and a mental disorder. Will he succeed in finding his way in his home or classroom? In this workshop we will focus on the use of indoor guidelines by a female adult with innate def-blindness and a mental disorder. With pictures we will take you along in the process of the developments of this woman, looking at a successful tool for groping by hands called “space recognition.” This tool, developed by Bartimeus and the Department Orientation and Mobility of Bartimeus has proved to be highly useful to orientation indoors.

Everyone with an autism spectrum disorder experiences the world from a different perspective, this calls for different treatment including mobility. In this workshop you learn how someone with autism experiences the world and what he needs in guidance and environment.

Trainer: ‘Did you see that cyclist?’

Client: ‘Yes, I did!’

Yet as a trainer, you are often left wondering: Was the cyclist really seen? When was he seen? Did the client really watch and was the cyclist really observed?

In this workshop we explore the use of Eye-tracking during mobility training. By tracking eye movement, we can know what one is looking at. We will also explore what this information says about visual awareness and how to use this information to provide appropriate instructions.

People with an impairment in both hearing and seeing (deafblind) often experience a lack of information in communication with others. In particular, information in the area of non-verbal communication, such as face expressions is often missed as well as space and area factors.

SHC concerns providing additional information besides the use of other forms of communication as spoken language, (four hands) sign language, etc., to provide formal communication with a deafblind person of important situational and emotional information which is often not said. SHC is directed to translating this non-verbal information to clear grope messages which can be felt on one’s body. There are four categories in which SHC is used: emotions, describing surroundings/space and area, mobility and social environment. In this workshop we focus on describing surroundings/space and area and the use of SHC on mobility. Besides background information will there be room to practice haptics (grope messages) on the body.

In this workshop we will look at how you can offer echo localization in O&M training. The workshop expects you to know the basics – how to make the tongue-klick and understand the difference between active and passive echo localization and will focus on what is important on a route and what are useful spots for echo localization.

Integral accessibility and “design-for-all” are popular terms, but how do we come to an integral world where everybody can participate in? For the visual impaired, moving in public space independently is often challenging and far from safe. So how do we come to a safe, predictable and clear route guidance? Recent practice has come to a consensus about the principles of route guidance, but how do we translate this knowledge to route guidance in Holland?

In this workshop we will go further into the vision and principles of route guidance, how to deal with them and potential exceptions to these principles.

How often do you give evening mobility training? And how do you give content to the training? In this workshop we will discuss with use of statements and cases which share knowledge and look at the needs of mobility during the evening.

By giving the client insight into his/her field of view loss and what that means for his/her mobility, the client can get a better understanding of his/her possibilities. During this workshop, I will show you how you can determine which visual strategy works best for your client to get a better overview of the surrounding area and possible obstacles.

When do you start bicycle training with a toddler? Is it possible for toddlers with partial sight to start bicycle training? And is such a training realistic when the child will never cycle in public?

In this workshop, with help of practical movies, examples of training materials/exercises and views at the development of toddlers, we will present you a program with which you can start training toddlers and hope that more partially sighted toddlers get the chance to learn how to cycle.