The Night Vision Aid (NVA) was evaluated to determine its effectiveness as an orientation and mobility aid for legally blind persons with night blindness. On the average, the NVA did not significantly improve the Ss' mobility at night; the majority of them preferred the Wide Angle Mobility Light. (CL)

Of 111 Detroit elementary school students who were examined on the Kraus-Weber Minimum Physical Fitness Test to determine the relationship between visual handicap and physical fitness, 95 percent of the normally sighted, 84 percent of the partially sighted, and 46 percent of the blind students passed the test. (Author/MC)

The study assessed variations in the indoor and outdoor locomotor mobility of 22 low-vision adults, under normal and reduced illumination. Subjects' visual fields and contrast sensitivities accounted for 39 percent of the variation in mobility performance, whereas their visual acuities were not related to mobility performance. (Author/JDD)

This article reports on a study of the spatial mapping skills of two totally blind, two visually impaired, and eight normally sighted children. Children were asked to point to familiar locations in and around their homes. Results suggest that blindness interferes with the development of spatial knowledge in which Euclidean directions between…

This open-ended survey of 156 subjects (78 pairs of visually handicapped orientation and mobility specialists and adult clients) identified common low vision mobility problems (lighting conditions, drop-offs, street crossings, changes in terrain) and found a high degree of agreement between the reported perceptions of mobility practitioners and…

Three experiments examined the ability of blind individuals and individuals simulating the visual acuity of 20/400 to monitor the behaviors of a cane traveler in various environments and at distances between 10 feet and 25 feet. Results suggested that at least some vision is needed for instructors monitoring visually impaired individuals learning…

To stimulate research proposals, the report stresses the need for a comprehensive research and development program regarding sensory aids for the visually handicapped and describes 17 representative projects viewed as warranting immediate attention. The 17 projects are categorized in two different ways. In a brief summary section, projects are…

The report details the project to develop programed instruction (in which each lesson is programed in small sequential steps) in visual orientation and mobility for multi-impaired low vision children (from preschool age to early adulthood). An introductory section reviews literature showing a need for orientation and mobility instruction; and…

To develop a battery of tasks to predict and improve mobility performance, a series of functional vision tasks (texural shearing, degraded images, embedded figures, and parafoveal attention) were generated by a microcomputer. Sixty visually impaired subjects given either computerized task training or real-life training improved their low vision…