Five Requirements of Mobility Devices For People with a Mobility Visually Impaired or Blindness
- Grace Ambrose-Zaken
- Feb 21, 2021
- 8 min read
A guide to evaluating mobility devices
One of the most important questions parents should ask about their child with a mobility visual impairment or blindness is:
What mobility device is safest and most effective for my child?
The answer isn't simply "a long cane or nothing." Before choosing any mobility device, parents and professionals should ask a more important question:
Does the mobility tool my child with an MVI/B is using enable him/her to move safely, confidently, and independently in every environment?
Children with a mobility visual impairment or blindness (MVI/B) cannot consistently rely on vision to detect obstacles, changes in walking surfaces, curbs, stairs, furniture, or people in their path. Every step they take without access to this information increases the likelihood of collisions, falls, hesitation, and dependence on others.
Sighted children receive this information automatically through vision. Children with an MVI/B need another way to gather the same information before their bodies make contact with the environment.
The purpose of a mobility device is not simply to prevent collisions. Its purpose is to provide meaningful information that allows children to make decisions, solve problems, and move through the world independently.
Over many years of clinical practice, research, and observing hundreds of young children learning to walk, five essential requirements have emerged for evaluating mobility devices. Regardless of what a device is called or how it is designed, it should meet all five of these requirements if it is to support independent daily mobility.
Instead of asking is my child ready for a device, find out which mobility tool meets your MVI/B child's immediate mobility needs. Today.
The Five Requirements Framework for Evaluating Mobility Devices
Every effective mobility device should provide:
Independent use
Consistent availability
Reliable obstacle detection
Complete path coverage
Meaningful information with enough time to respond
1. Independent
A mobility device should allow MVI/B children to gather information for themselves without another person operating the device.
For toddlers, independence does not mean they are responsible for putting on the device or maintaining it independently. Adults place shoes on toddlers. Adults fasten seat belts. Adults also provide mobility devices.
Once the device is in place, however, the child should be able to use it without continual adult assistance.
A mobility device that requires another person to hold it, guide it, steer it, or constantly reposition it limits opportunities for independent exploration and decision making.
Children learn by making thousands of small decisions every day.
Should I keep walking?
Is something in front of me?
Can I fit through this space?
Should I stop and explore?
An MVI/B child who depends on another person to answer these questions is learning dependence rather than independent mobility.
2. Consistent
Mobility information should be available whenever children are moving.
Imagine if the lights in your home worked for only thirty minutes each day. You would constantly bump into furniture the rest of the time.
For children with an MVI/B, this is similar to walking without a mobility device.
An effective mobility device should be available throughout the day—not only during orientation and mobility lessons but during everyday life.
Children learn while:
playing
exploring
following siblings
walking through school
shopping with family
visiting playgrounds
helping with chores
Learning opportunities happen all day long. Mobility information should be available just as consistently.
3. Reliable
Children must be able to trust the information their mobility device provides.
Reliability means the device consistently detects obstacles before the child's body makes contact with them.
When a mobility device signals "stop," there should actually be an obstacle ahead.
When the device detects a change in elevation, there should truly be a curb, step, or uneven surface.
Reliable information teaches children something much deeper than obstacle detection.
It teaches trust.
Children begin to trust:
the information they receive,
the decisions they make,
and ultimately themselves.
Confidence develops when information is dependable.
4. Path Coverage
A mobility device should evaluate the path the child's entire body will travel—not just one small point.
Young children have developing balance and often walk with a wider base of support than older children or adults.
A mobility device should detect obstacles before either foot reaches them and should protect the full width of the child's body, including hips and shoulders.
Complete path coverage allows children to continue moving naturally rather than constantly stopping because they are uncertain about what lies ahead.
5. Meaningful Information
The ultimate purpose of a mobility device is communication.
It communicates information that vision would normally provide.
An effective mobility device answers important questions before the child's body makes contact with the environment.
Is there something ahead?
Is it safe to continue?
Is the ground changing?
Can I fit through this opening?
Should I stop and investigate?
Children who consistently receive this information become curious rather than fearful.
Instead of avoiding movement because unexpected collisions hurt, they begin exploring because they know what to expect.
Information leads to confidence.
Confidence leads to movement.
Movement leads to learning.
Why These Five Requirements Matter
Every movement a child makes contributes to development.
When children confidently move through their environment they strengthen:
balance
posture
coordination
endurance
spatial concepts
orientation skills
body awareness
social participation
independence
Mobility is not simply transportation.
Mobility is one of the primary ways children learn about the world.
Without consistent access to movement, children miss thousands of opportunities to develop physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally.
Comparing Mobility Devices
The Five Requirements Framework provides an objective way to evaluate mobility devices for young children.
A mobility device should score one point for each requirement it meets:
✔ Independent
✔ Consistent
✔ Reliable
✔ Complete Path Coverage
✔ Meaningful Information
Devices scoring fewer than five points may still have value in specific situations or during instruction, but they should not be expected to provide complete daily mobility for toddlers and preschool-aged children.
Why the Pediatric Belt Cane Meets All Five Requirements
Among the mobility devices currently available for toddlers and preschool-aged children, the Pediatric Belt Cane is unique because it satisfies all five requirements.
Once an adult places the Belt Cane on the MVI/B child, it functions as an independent source of extended touch feedback.
It:
remains with the child throughout daily activities,
consistently detects obstacles before body contact,
protects the child's walking path,
leaves both hands free for exploration, play, and balance,
and provides meaningful tactile information with enough time for the child to respond.
Like every mobility device, occasional adult assistance may be needed to reposition the frame or adjust the belt, particularly with very young toddlers. However, during typical daily movement, children with an MVI/B can independently gather the information they need to explore their environments safely.
Evaluating Other Mobility Devices
Many mobility devices have been used with young children who are MVI/B, including long canes, adapted mobility devices, push toys, hula hoops, reverse walkers, rolling carts, and other homemade adaptations.
Each offers certain advantages, but each should be evaluated using the same five requirements rather than by tradition or familiarity.
For example, a long cane is an excellent mobility tool for older children and adults who have developed the motor skills needed to use constant contact or two-point touch techniques. Most toddlers and preschoolers, however, have not yet developed the coordination necessary to maintain consistent, reliable sweeping of the cane while simultaneously learning to walk. As a result, the long cane often cannot provide continuous path information during daily travel for children under five years of age.
Similarly, reverse walkers may improve balance for children with motor impairments, but they are not designed to detect obstacles or provide tactile information about the walking surface. They address a different clinical need.
The question should never be, "Does this device exist?"
The question should always be:
Does this device provide all five requirements for effective mobility?
Looking Forward
Innovation in orientation and mobility begins by asking better questions.
Children who are blind deserve mobility tools that match their developmental abilities rather than expecting them to adapt to tools designed for adults.
As our understanding of early childhood development continues to grow, so should the mobility devices we provide. Every child deserves safe, independent access to the information needed to explore the world with confidence.
The Five Requirements Framework offers parents, educators, orientation and mobility specialists, physicians, therapists, and funding agencies a practical way to evaluate mobility devices based on function rather than tradition. By focusing on how well a device provides independent, consistent, reliable path information, we can ensure that children receive mobility tools that support not only safe travel, but also healthy development, confidence, and lifelong independence.
The remaining devices scored less than 5 for toddlers and preschool learners
Regular white cane- to provide consistent reliable path information must be swung back and forth, one step, one swipe. This is not something children under five are able to do. Therefore, while it may be provided during instructional time, in between those lessons, the pediatric belt cane is needed by children aged five and younger.
Complex disabilities
Reverse Walkers Children with an MVI/B who are not motor impaired, do not need walkers for balance. Children with an MVI/B who are also motor impaired need walkers and a mobility tool for extended touch feedback.
Homemade is not well made or useful
Adaptive Mobility Device – whether in the shape of a “rectangle”, “capital I” or “push broom”, toddlers with MVI/B have difficulty maintaining a grip on the device and keeping it in position. The fact that the device can be dropped means that it is unable to be consistent or reliable. When it is positioned correctly by the child, it provides path information. Preschool learners may have better success with rectangular adapted mobility devices, but this requires adults to be diligent about their use in all circumstances.
Hoople – this device is hand-held, and it has a tear-drop shape. Because it it is hand-held, it cannot be consistent and reliable for toddlers. For preschool learners, it’s shape provides only a narrow contact with the surface, it doesn’t provide full path coverage, the tear-drop shape compromises the information it provides, especially when held off to one side.
Push toys maybe independently employed, but are also easy for a toddler to lose interest in and let go of. The can be very difficult to steer and poor posture may be needed to move them.
Strollers, wooden chairs and rolling carts are temporary contraptions that have no independent outcomes for a toddler with MVI/B.
Each time you employ any type of mobility tool ask yourself what independence means for toddlers with MVI/B. Independence means once the adult has provided it, the child can independently move about with minimal adult support.
What about hula hoops and reverse walkers? Consider recent videos showing children with MVI/B inside the hula hoop being led about by an adult. No part of the hula hoop is touching the ground. Therefore, hula hoops score a zero – as they are providing no independent, reliable, consistent, path, or information.
If you can't see where you're going, you risk injury. That is why we need to find better mobility tools to meet the complex, diverse needs of children born with an MVI/B. Pediatric belt canes are an important advancement in a field that is thirsty for innovation.
Consider the needs of older adults who are blind and people who are blind who also use wheelchairs-adapted for sport and other pursuits. They need better solutions than they have now. We seek better tools to meet these needs.
In order to find answers, we must first ask the questions.
Comments