Kids need to play. Few would argue that the number one priority of the orientation and mobility profession is to serve totally blind individuals. The history of the profession defines the mobility teacher as a professional trained to work with vision impairments. This definition is appropriate in a adult rehabilitation setting, but is not broad enough for public education. The blind rehabilitation model fails to address the travel problems of many special education students.
School based mobility is a profession focused on navigational disabilities.
It is not solely about the consequences of vision impairment. In Saginaw, Michigan, at the Millet Learning Center, we define orientation and mobility as a profession that addresses navigational problems, whether these disabilities are caused by vision impairment, damage to navigational centers in the brain, lack of travel experience because of disability, or because of oculomotor, proprioceptive, or perceptual vision anomalies. This redefinition of mobility teachers as navigational specialists is an important shift of emphasis with important consequences. A major problem in the field is that mobility specialists are rarely hired in rural areas or in regions with few blind children. This has denied the few blind children comprehensive service.