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Balanced, Protected, and Informed O&M for Active Daily Living
Dr. Grace Ambrose-Zaken


Why Does a Blind Child Need a White Cane Arc for Safety, and what is it?
The white cane arc is an essential tool for anyone with a mobility visual impairment or blindness (MVI/B). Yet, children with an MVI/B struggle to even hold the long cane much less sweep it back and forth with each step. Children can push a static white cane arc in front of them. The static white cane arc is when it is built into the device.

Grace Ambrose-Zaken
Sep 9, 2025


1960s Part 2: O&M Goes to School
The entire field of orientation and mobility (O&M) exists because of the dog guide and, later, the long cane. Both were developed in response to war. Dog guides emerged after World War I, and the long cane after World War II, to serve newly blinded veterans—adults who had walked confidently with vision for decades before losing it. As a result, the curriculum for teaching independent travel was designed around a very specific learner: a physically fit, cognitively intact adul

Grace Ambrose-Zaken
Apr 6, 2025


1960s Part 1: Prerequisites to Long Cane Safety
History of O&M describes the long, slow, tortured road of retro-fitting adult long canes and O&M methods for children.

Grace Ambrose-Zaken
Apr 5, 2025


History of Early Intervention O&M: The First Half of the Twentieth Century
Teaching blind children before long canes were invented shows why we believe bruises are instructional for blind babies.

Grace Ambrose-Zaken
Mar 23, 2024
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