Programs

Orientation and Mobility

Our orientation and mobility training will provide you with the skills needed to travel independently and safely throughout your home and community by using a long cane.

Orientation is the process of using your senses to establish your position and relationship to other significant objects in your environment. Mobility is the ability to navigate safely from your present position to your desired position in another part of your environment.

Your instruction will begin indoors. When proper cane techniques are learned, you will begin to work outside in a residential and downtown area. Upon successfully navigating residential and highly trafficked areas, you may advance to traveling on public transportation and independent travel. Every effort is made to relate your training and instruction to your home community and other places you visit frequently.

Our goal is to enable you to enter any environment, familiar or unfamiliar, and to function safely, efficiently and confidently. The orientation and mobility instructor will provide follow-up services at the completion of training on a job site or in other environments as necessary.

Braille Literacy

You are encouraged to gain a full understanding and appreciation of Braille.

We conduct workshops and presentations for various community groups and schools to inform others about the importance of Braille to the visually impaired. We coordinate, transcribe and produce written documents in Braille for all our consumers during training.

Also, on a limited basis, documents in Braille are produced for businesses, that serve the needs of the Braille-reading community.

Home and Personal Management

Our home management training helps you with cooking, cleaning and basic household management after a loss of vision. During this training, you will cover information related to personal management such as balanced meal planning, table manners and etiquette, laundry and clothing care, basic household cleanliness and home care, economics and personal management of hygiene and grooming.

Communications

Our communication class provides instruction in typing and basic computer skills. You also learn how to perform routine tasks such as writing checks and deposit slips, keeping a check register, use a talking calculator, counting change, and identifying coins, etc., using adaptive aids.

Counseling Services

During your training, the Training Center provides an extra service of having a licensed professional counselor on staff to assist with your adjustment to blindness and any other issues and concerns that arise during your training. The counselor schedules speakers to come in monthly and provides you with information to support you in the adjustment process. We also offer individual and group sessions that work on interpersonal skills, mood management, anxiety management and much more.