Orientation and mobility training teaches people with vision loss how to move around safely and confidently on their own.

Orientation means understanding where you are in space and figuring out how to get where you want to go. Mobility is the skill of actually moving safely through that space.

Why do you need it? When vision gets worse, especially later in life, you suddenly can’t rely on your eyes to spot steps, traffic, or obstacles. Training gives you new tools and skills so you can stay independent instead of feeling stuck at home.

It’s a step-by-step process. You usually start with a symbol cane: a short white cane you hold in front of you. It doesn’t touch the ground. Its job is simply to let other people know you have low vision so they’ll give you a bit more space.

Next comes the long white cane. That one actually sweeps the ground in front of you to find obstacles, steps, and changes in the surface. But you can’t just pick it up and go. You need proper training to learn the right technique, how to hold it, and how to walk with it safely.

After that you learn orientation. A qualified mobility instructor walks the route with you, points out landmarks you can feel or hear; like a certain curb, a noisy shop, or a change in the pavement, and teaches you exactly where to turn and what to watch out for. You do this a few times until the route feels familiar.

Modern phone navigation apps help a lot, but they’re not perfect. They can lose signal, miss exact entrances, or fail to warn you about a dangerous spot. That’s why even with a phone, it’s still valuable to have someone walk the route with you once or twice so you know the tricky bits by heart.

The goal is simple: to give you back freedom and confidence to go where you want, when you want.

For more information about how to access mobility and orientation training in your area, please contact the social workers at Headoffice@retinasa.org.za.