The Visually Impaired Person
Visual impairment (损害) carries with it a reduced or restricted ability to travel through one’s physical and social environment until adequate orientation and mobility skills have been established. Because observational skills are more limited, self-control within the immediate surroundings is limited. The visual impaired person is less able to anticipate hazardous situations or obstacles to avoid.
Orientation refers to the mental map .one has of one’s surroundings and to the relationship between self and that environment. The mental map is the best generated by moving through the environment and piecing together relationships, object by object, in an organized approach. With little of no visual feedback to reinforce this mental map, a visually impaired person must rely on memory for key landmarks and other clues. Landmarks and clues enable visually impaired person to affirm their position in space.
Mobility, on the other hand, is the ability to travel safely and efficiently from one point to another within one’s physical and social environment. Good orientation skills are necessary to good mobility skills. Once visually impaired students learn to travel safely as pedestrians (行人) they also need to learn to use public transportation to become as independent as possible.
To meet the expanding needs and demands of the visually impaired person, there is a sequence of instruction that begins during the preschool years and may continue after high school. Many visually impaired children lack adequate concepts regarding time and space or objects and s in their environment. During the early years much attention is focused on the development of some fundamental concepts, such as inside or outside, in front of or behind, fast or slow, movement of traffic, the variety of intersections, elevators or escalators, and so forth. These concepts are essential to safe, efficient travel through familiar and unfamiliar settings, first within buildings, then in residential neighborhoods, and finally in business communities.
The Visually Impaired PersonWhat is the author mainly talking about in the passage______