Belinda,
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You and I have some visual history in common. I am a congenitally legally blind COMS, now semi-retired. I was a bioptic driver up to about three years ago. I stopped driving at that time after nearly 50 years of bioptic driving, not because
of any significant decline in vision, but because realistically, all physical functions slow down as we age. I was in my late 60s, and I wanted to stop driving on my own before it would become apparent that I should have done so. I consider myself still able
to monitor students for safety, but I have purposefully slowed my practice down to a very part time schedule. I do not feel that I need to be out there working with four or five or mor students per day five or six days a week as I did at one time.
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Being a COMS was a second or third professional change for me. I could not have become a COMS when working on my first Master¡¯s degree back in the 1970s. As you probably know, legally or totally blind people were not allowed to sit for
the COMS exam until 1994. I thus did other things in the rehabilitation and education professions, and went back to Graduate school to prepare to take the COMS exam in 2010. I practiced for the most part full time until 2021.
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When in Graduate School at Texas Tech, I recall asking Dr. Griffin-Shirley? why there was not more literature or research on how legally blind and totally blind people adapted techniques to? monitor for safety, and effectively teach. ?She
answered that the process was very individualized. She gave a few examples of adaptations they had made, but she did not seem to really want me to study the techniques that other legally blind people used as much as she wanted me to develop my own that I could
prove worked for me in order to monitor and keep people safe while nonetheless teaching effectively.
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I will mention just a few ways in which I teach differently than some other COMS who are fully sighted, ?that I have had the opportunity to observe. First of all, I back off as students increase skills as any COMS does, but I probably do
not back off as far. When a student is ready to work routes without my being in the physical intervention position ?behind them. I am probably still closer to them than most instructors would be. I do not want to miss small details of cane use, positioning,
gait, etc. that I might miss at further distance. I discuss this with the student ahead of time so that they understand what I am doing back there. After discussing my techniques with them, I probably physically touch their hands, arms, or shoulders more than
totally sighted instructors would. This helps me evaluate the subtleties of grip, hand positioning, cane placement, etc. that I might miss or not see accurately. It did not initially occur to me ?that I was doing these things to accommodate my own visual impairment,
I worked for several years in the field of deafblindness prior to entering COMS training, and I may have developed some of these techniques to accommodate communicating tactually. In terms of techniques most directly related to ?safety, I think I walk routs
more ahead of teaching them than most COMS do. Because of some personnel changes at the agency where I did my internship, I actually worked under two COMS as an intern. Both of them would often scout out a route by driving it. They would spot broken sidewalks,
elevation changes, speed bumps and other environmental features that might impact safety or orientation when I could not spot these while driving or riding in a car. ?I believe that anyone can pick up more of these features by actually experiencing them firsthand,
but as a legally blind COMS, I believe that doing this is essential for monitoring and safety.
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I notice that Dr. Bozeman has sent you a second message while I have been writing this telling you that you may feel free to contact her. She is much better qualified than I am to talk with you about training processes to become a COMS.
After all, that is her expertise, while I have just been a work-a-day practitioner out there chasing blind and low vision people through the environment. If you would like to talk peer to peer, however, I make the same offer. ?Feel free to contact me. I will
place my contact information at the end of this message.
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One other thing that I might suggest. We low vision people who can drive with a bioptic are a kind of a strange hybrid bunch. We get to do something that most blind and vision impaired people can not do. We can drive, but we consider what
routes we are going to drive more carefully and do more ?conscious route planning to avoid driving situations that we know might be difficult for us. You can transfer some of these techniques to the planning of walking routes. ?This is a skill that comes more
naturally and easily to us low vision drivers.
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I remember writing in one of my scholarship applications to get funding to return to COMS school, that I felt that in an ideal world, a blind or legally blind student, would be able to work with a blind COMS, a low vision COMS, and a sighted
COMS. There are aspects of the work that each of these categories of people can naturally do best.? They may each have to work a little harder to master the areas for which they are not naturally well equipped, but they all have an important role to play in
the profession. ?Needless to say, we are not in this ideal world. Many blind individuals do not get the opportunity to work very much with any COMS at all, and certainly not with a group of COMS. Thus, COMS candidates in each of the categories of vision simply
have to work a little harder to emphasize the parts of the work that do not come as naturally to them. ?I think a further example of this was something I realized when I stopped driving. I think I was always competent at teaching the use of fixed route buses,
but I found I became even better at teaching these skills once I had to use these buses for almost all of my daily travel. The everyday user learns tricks that the teacher of skills looking in from the outside may never know as intimately.
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Well, I just read back over this post, and I am not particularly happy with it. It is rather disorganized and I have wondered around from topic to topic. This is probably because, although I feel it is a very important topic, I still ?struggle
with how to organize and present information concerning it. Again, I extend the offer, if you think any of this seems helpful and want to talk further, feel free to contact me.
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Michael Byington, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS)
> President of Kansas Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Inc.
>> Membership Coordinator for Friends In Art of the American Council of the Blind
>> 712 S. Kansas Avenue
>> Suite 414D-F
>> Topeka, Kansas 66603
>> (785) 221-7111
>> ByingtonCOMS@...
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I can respond from my experience with 5 universities. I am speaking for myself. You mentioned the Griffin-Shirley et al research and I am glad to be a part of the research
team.
As you know, anyone can apply to an O&M program regardless of disability. Regarding safety, I?expect the student instructor to keep themselves and the person they are
teaching safe in a dynamic environment-in all environments. They are assessed (in the hands-on course) informally each day and formally, at intervals throughout the course. I?have had people who are fully sighted with no other disabilities who could not do
this. I?have had people with blindness or low vision who could. How?they monitor grip, cane position, and overall safety, etc. may be different.
In the universities where I have worked, we did not ask someone with low vision to undergo any assessments that we did not require for all applicants. Among other results
of our research, being a competent traveler was noted to be necessary.
We would talk with the applicant, all applicants, about what is expected in the curriculum and that particular course.
Laura Bozeman, PhD, COMS, CLVT
Professor and Director: Vision Studies
Chair: School for Global Inclusion and Social Development
CAUTION: EXTERNAL SENDER
Hello orientation and mobility brains trust!
I would be grateful for a discussion with individuals who can provide me with advice about strategies O&M instructors (COMS) with low vision would use to maintain the safety of their clients when delivering itinerant services particularly
new travel routes.
I am also interested in the feedback that students would receive from their placement supervisors as to what it means to maintain client safety. How that is addressed through university/ COMS (ACVREP) assessment criteria to determine if/
when a student has met competency.
Obviously, I understand and affirm an orientation and mobility instructor must be able to demonstrate they can maintain the safety of the client. However there seems to be a very broad application of what this might mean. Is there any assessment
done prior to a vision impaired person undertaking a course to determine if they can maintain a client safety? (Not from what I¡¯ve read) If there has been an incident where it is perceived a clients safety may not have been maintained, how is that addressed?
(There seems to be anecdotal stories)
Currently I am undertaking postgraduate study in Australia to graduate as an orientation and mobility specialist and subsequently to sit the COMS exam.
I was born with low vision and am a bioptic driver for over eight years.?
In Australia, we only have one person with vision impairment working as a COMS. We have had only a handful of other vision impaired people who have attempted to become an orientation and mobility specialist. However,
in my discussions with some of them, some supervisors and university staff, there seems to be a general consensus that vision impaired people are not able to maintain the safety of clients. To me this seems to be a lack of familiarity of how things can be
done and are being done.
Your insights would be greatly appreciated please?
Note: I have read the recent study and been in contact with Dr Griffin-Shirley and Dr Bradley Blair. I¡¯ve also been reviewing Dr Sauerburger¡¯s work on road crossings.
Belinda O'Connor - DLI
Churchill Fellow 2022 "The NRMA - ACT Road Safety Trust Churchill Fellowship to identify success factors and barriers for low vision and telescopic glasses driving¡±?
Bioptic Drivers Australia (BDA)
I acknowledge that I live and?work on Ngunnawal?Country?of the Kulin Nations and pay?my respects to First Nations?Elders past?and present.?Sovereignty of the lands and?waters across the continent?has never?been ceded, and?this is and
always will be?Aboriginal and Torres Strait?Islander land.
