What is Orientation and Mobility?
Move through your world with comfort and confidence.
Orientation and Mobility (often shortened to O&M) is a term that covers the concepts, skills and techniques to help you travel safely and efficiently. Throughout your personally-tailored Orientation and Mobility training, you can learn skills to:
- Get around your home and community safely.
- Safely cross the street.
- Feel confident using the bus, tram or train to travel to the shops.
- Get around your uni campus without relying on friends.
- Use wayfinding aids like white canes and assistive technologies to increase your independence.
- Support your child to explore the world if they have partial vision or blindness.
- Keep doing the hobbies or activities you love.
Increase your confidence and independence.
We can also assist your family members, friends, and loved ones to develop skills to better support you.
Children's Mobility Services
Orientation and Mobility services can boost your child’s confidence: at school, home, and as teens transition into adulthood.
Children with partial vision and blindness learn about the world, themselves, and each other through safe play and exploring new environments with confidence. To do so, they need a unique set of skills to understand and move through the world. These skills are taught in Children’s Mobility training.
Children’s Mobility training can include anything from teaching kids to navigate their home and community to providing support while they adapt to a change in vision.
Every program is tailored to your child’s needs, age and skill level. And, just as kids quickly grow to meet new challenges and embrace new experiences, our programs do the same.
Children’s Mobility training can flex to support your child through their entire school life—from junior years through to Year 12—introducing different techniques and mobility aids as they become relevant.
Ready to get started?
How the training plays out.
Importantly, all Children’s Mobility training is delivered with a focus on fun. The approach teaches your child valuable practical skills while encouraging them to enjoy themselves, make friends, be creative, and explore their potential.
Support is usually provided in one-on-one training sessions where your child is most comfortable, depending on their unique goals. These training sessions can take place in your home, at school, or out and about in the general community.
In support of ongoing Children’s Mobility training, we also offer individual programs, camps, group programs, consultant services, and workshops.
A specialised team to support your goals
Meet the potential members of your support team.
While everyone’s experience of Orientation and Mobility training is personal and unique, here are some of the specialist professionals and support staff you might meet along the way.
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1. Orientation and Mobility specialists
These highly trained specialists will likely be your main training contact. They’ll work directly with you to teach you skills for safe and independent travel, and other techniques depending on your personal training plan. -
2. Rehabilitation Teachers
Depending on your personal story and circumstance, you may receive Orientation and Mobility training as part of a wider rehabilitation program. Rehabilitation Teachers work with people with disabilities—including people with blindness or partial vision—to develop skills for life, work, and education. -
3. Occupational Therapists
In some cases, Occupational Therapists may work with you to address broader aspects that support your ability to move with confidence. This can include adapting your home environment to ensure it suits your needs and goals. You can learn more about Occupational Therapy here. -
4. Educational Support Staff
In Children’s Mobility training, there may be support staff, like teacher’s aides or educational assistances, who work with students to support orientation and mobility training in a school environment.
Real stories from real people
Christine receives Orientation and Mobility training through Guide Dogs Victoria
Hear from people from all around Australia living confidently and independently with Orientation and Mobility skills.
“The Orientation and Mobility specialist spent the most time with me and I really appreciated their useful hints to help me gain my independence. I was given an identification cane which I use to gauge the depth and perception of my surroundings. Grieve the loss of function but keep looking at the brighter side. Keep positive and set goals one step at a time.”
Related Services
Everyone’s circumstance is unique, depending on your goals, you may benefit from multiple services in combination for the best possible support.
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Occupational Therapy
Support to learn the skills and techniques you use in everyday life, like making dinner, gardening at home, or doing the grocery shopping.
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Assistive Technology Training
Support to use the technology and devices that can make life easier by accessing information, finding your way around, connecting with friends, or enjoying your favourite hobbies.
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Early Childhood Services
Specialised support for parents or carers and their children, from birth through to seven years of age, who have partial vision or blindness.
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