Exploring the Community

Published: July 21, 2023

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  • Learner story

Orientation and Mobility provides opportunities for our ākonga to safely explore their environments. We have extended their skills from navigating safe pathways to also planning and managing the ‘how’s’ of these expeditions.

Dimetruz waiting to cross the road rotated
Figure 1 - Dimetruz is standing outside the BP petrol station with his cane where he is familiarising the space and surroundings in preparation for work experience there.

This has included: safe crossings, waving on, fading back, landmarking, catching buses, creating tactile maps, finding and checking bus timetables, using Uber and accessing Google Maps on phones or iPads often while navigating from one destination to another in the community (both known and unknown).

The ākonga have loved exploring their communities and learning new skills with technology for the reward of reaching their destination safely and with greater independence.

One ākonga commented that searching his phone using the microphone ‘will be useful’, another was surprised at the easy process of accessing Uber.

Tahlia is crossing the road on a zebra crossing using her cane.

Figure 2 - Tahlia is crossing the road at a zebra crossing.