Safe Toddles Talks Orientation and Mobility

Oct 02 2024

Safe Toddles Talks Orientation and Mobility Podcast artwork

Host Dr. Grace Ambrose-Zaken, President and CEO Safe Toddles non-profit discusses safe mobility for learners who were born blind and visually impaired. In 2023 & 2024, I am sharing the over 100 interviews I conducted with adults born blind or mobility visually impaired. I discussed with them their recollections of growing up. and walking before, during and after obtaining orientation and mobility instruction and mobility tools. In 2021/22, I worked with co-host Kelvin Crosby. Together we interviewed belt cane users and people who grew up blind without belt canes. For more information about this blog contact: 845-244-6600, [email protected]

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Audrey Born 1953 working mother who embraced wayfinding technology before it was cool!

Oct 02 2024 82 mins

Born in 1953, she got the full crazy treatment growing up blind. Yet, somehow she came through it all very well adjusted-a working wife and mother she has the same desires as anyone..Her life is one lived just before the technology boom hit – before ride-share apps and other helpful smart phone tricks. Take a trip back with a very smart tour guide – growing up blind and living

Mike born 1952, blind due to RLF/ROP a MUST LISTEN for all O&M Graduate Students!: Part 2

Aug 28 2024 108 mins

This was one of the very early interviews I had done. Twenty-five years ago, late one evening I sat down across the table in my Hunter College office with good friend, Mike Levy. He had come prepared with written statements of memories and family lore surrounding his travel. I would recommend this interview to every graduate student studying O&M. Mike was taught O&M in the

Mike born 1952, blind due to RLF/ROP a MUST LISTEN for all O&M Graduate Students!: Part 1

Aug 21 2024 59 mins

This was one of the very early interviews I had done. Twenty-five years ago, late one evening I sat down across a table in my Hunter College office with good friend, Mike Levy. He had come prepared with written statements of memories and family lore surrounding his travel. I would recommend this interview to every graduate student studying O&M. Mike was taught O&M in the ei

Judy Born 1952 - proof positive you can grow up without safe mobility and enjoy life to the fullest!

Aug 04 2024 100 mins

Judy is a poster child of success absent safe mobility. As a child, she had light and color vision – and that means she was mobility visually impaired. In the 1950s, she learned to use the long cane, but she wasn’t allowed to take it home until she was older. She didn’t really start using a long cane until grad school. She and her husband go on grand adventures around the wor

Don McBride born 1936 became blind at age 11, O&M instructor before it was a grad degree. Part II

Jul 09 2024 95 mins

In every accomplishment – the O&M instructor in me wishes more value had been placed on his safety. His life is filled with accomplishments and yet- all I can hear is just how freakin’ hard it has been for him to get around safely and he blames himself – not the inferior tools he’s been provided… He taught orientation and mobility (O&M) too – learn more about th

Don McBride born 1936 became blind at age 11, O&M instructor before it was a grad degree.

Mar 31 2024 97 mins

This week is a real treat- I found Don McBride’s interview, he was born in 1936. He is a great storyteller and gives amazing insight into what it was like to be blind child in the 1940s and 50s- he became blind at age 11, he attend residential school and so had certain advantages – but, there wasn’t white cane safety at the time and his older brothers were determined to tough

Frances born 1952, RLF, prefers her Dog Guide over Long Canes

Mar 26 2024 66 mins

We are entering the 1950s with Frances who was born 1952 seven years after the first white cane was taught to a blinded veteran of WWII. She remembered knowing that she had to wait to learn to use a long cane once she became 15. This is a terrific discussion of her dog guide use and paratransit. If you’re curious about the reality of getting around while blind – Frances is fabu

Taletha born 1951 with no light perception

Mar 19 2024 63 mins

If you want some assurances that growing up blind, waiting until school age to get the first long cane can result in a well adjusted, fully employed and outgoing adult- then listen to Taletha. She compares working with O&M specialists who were sighted and blind. Overall, she felt she should have had much more time with either one of them – she had a 3 bus a day bus route to s

Patricia, born 1951 - To Use or Not To Use the White Cane The conflict is real

Mar 02 2024 44 mins

Patricia Montgomery is a terrific example of the seeds the world has sown. People with visual impairments are expected to be visually capable and blind people are expected to be treated as if they are sighted. Blindness and visual impairment are the most blatant form of stereotyping and marginalizing of a disability group out in the open. Consider the slur, ‘what are you blind?�

For far too long adults have held an unrealistic expectation that blind babies will walk independently without the protection of a white cane.

Jan 28 2024 12 mins

This is the soundtrack of the video posted on YouTube. It shows footage from 1960s and audio tape interviews of children born blind in the 1950s. Marcia new she was blind when she entered kindergarten. She noticed her peers ran around and she didn’t. Running without a two-step safety buffer is not recommended. A 1966 blind high schooler is shown being shadowed for safety by a sig