By Dona Sauerburger, COMS - April, 2020
Necessity is the mother of all inventions!
During the Coronavirus pandemic, we were challenged to come up with strategies to provide at least some orientation and mobility (O&M) instruction remotely.
I thought that maybe some of the skills and concepts that people with visual impairments need for dealing with uncontrolled crossings could be taught remotely, using a computer program that the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and I developed several years ago.
This program, APH's "Crossings with no Traffic Control, provides written material, simulation exercises, and videos to help O&Ms teach some of the skills, as well as instructions for the O&M specialist to have the student apply these skills to real-life situations at uncontrolled crossings.
It also has suggestions and videos to help the O&M specialist teach the remaining skills (the skills are all listed at the bottom of this page).
I am extremely grateful to Jeremy Cefaratti, who is visually impaired and who had asked for some O&M training, including street-crossing. Not only was he willing to be a pioneer as a student to receive remote O&M instruction, he even helped me find and install a program that would allow him to access my computer and use the APH program from his home!
Using that system, we were each able to practice safe social distancing and remain in our own homes while I helped him to:
- realize that Situations of Uncertainty exist; understand how they can be recognized; and realize that situations can change;
- develop an intuitive understanding of his crossing time;
- be able to compare warning times of approaching vehicles with his crossing time, and recognize Situations of Uncertainty;
- be able to analyze the risk of crossing in Situations of Uncertainty, and consider alternatives when the risk is not acceptable;
- maximize his ability to hear approaching vehicles, and understand about masking sounds.
I used the following equipment and materials:
- Computer for student and instructor
- APH "Crossings with no Traffic Control" software installed in instructor's computer
- Remote-control program **
- Internet access for student and instructor
- Phone (we used Facetime so I could see him pushing the keys, but he could have just voiced what he did)
- Stopwatch
- Risk Analysis Checklist
- Notes and lesson plans
- Videos/pictures of student's home street
- In order for students to remotely use the APH program that is on your computer, they need to be able to push your computer keys from their computer.
For this, you need to install a program that allows them to control your computer remotely -- you've probably experienced something like this if you've ever allowed a technician to fix or help you with your computer by controlling it remotely.
It is important to note that while students can move your mouse and press the keyboard, you also can control your own computer.
- With each of these remote-control programs, there was a half-second delay from when the APH simulations played on my computer and when Jeremy heard them and could respond. Below, I explain how we dealt with that.
- When I was trying to adjust my computer's volume while Jeremy was supposed to press a button, I found that students will be unable to press buttons while you're moving the mouse.
You are the primary controller of your computer so you will need to avoid doing anything when they are using it.
The Educational Technology and Mobile Learning webpage has a list of programs that could allow students to do this. We tried GoToMyPC (which has a monthly fee), and that worked great when I tried it with some colleagues. It has the advantage that the student doesn't need to download anything, they just click on an email invitation from me and then I approve them, and away we go. However we couldn't figure out how to make it work with Jeremy because he has a MAC and I have a PC.
Then we tried TeamViewer (which is free), and it worked perfectly! We each had to download it into our computers, and then Jeremy filled in the ID and password that I gave to him, then I approved him, and he came on board into my computer.
NOTES:
- The APH "Crossings with no Traffic Control" program requires that you choose a street where the student can later practice applying the skills that he or she learns, and find out how much time the student needs for crossing that street.
I went to Jeremy's neighborhood and chose to use the street he needs to cross to get to/from his bus, and we planned to ask his wife to help him time that crossing, using instructions found here.
While I was there, I took pictures and videos of that crossing to use during the training. Then all that remained was to enter Jeremy's street-crossing time into the APH program and download the remote control program, plan my lessons and gather the equipment and checklist I'd need, and schedule the lessons with Jeremy.
- I was extremely nervous, and probably wouldn't have done it if Jeremy hadn't been game to try it.
But within about ten minutes, as you can probably tell from the videos below, I felt VERY comfortable remotely teaching the same skills that I had been teaching in person for many years, and was confident that I was doing it as well as I could have done if we had been together for the lessons.
Dr. Amy Parker, Coordinator of the O&M Program at Portland State University, organized and moderated a webinar to present this material, and Leanne Grillot and the folks at APH made it happen!
The panelists can be seen in the screenshot to the right (top row from left: Leanne Grillot, Laura Zierer, Stephanie Carmichael; bottom row Dona Sauerburger, Amy Parker, Jeremy Cerafatti).