The Importance of Orientation and Mobility Skills for Students Who Are Deaf-Blind

D. Jay Gense and Marilyn Gense, Revised August 2004

Orientation and mobility (O&M) instruction provides students who are deaf-blind with a set of foundational skills to use residual visual, auditory, and other sensory information to understand their environments. For a child who is deaf-blind, movement is an opportunity to gather sensory information, communicate, and make choices. This factsheet reviews O&M instructional strategies and provides basic information on mobility skills and techniques.