PORTLAND, Ore. — Using a white cane, Megan Becker felt her way through the Portland International Airport. Alongside the cane, she utilized wayfinding apps and a human guide to make the trek to Henry’s Tavern in Concourse C.
Becker was blindfolded for the exercise and able to take off her eye mask after reaching the restaurant, but her experience was meant to illustrate the very real challenges faced by those with vision loss.
Becker is one of eight students in Portland State University’s Orientation and Mobility program who visited the airport on a recent Wednesday. Students used canes, guides and navigation apps GoodMaps and Aira to understand firsthand what blind and visually impaired travelers encounter going through a bustling regional travel hub and TSA security.
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The Orientation and Mobility program is a specialized graduate-level certification program designed to train professionals to teach individuals who are blind, visually impaired or deafblind how to travel safely. The program takes about one to two years to complete with a mix of online and in-person courses.
Special education professor and program coordinator Amy Parker said there is hidden work for people with disabilities when traveling. She said orientation and mobility specialists play an important role in helping people travel safely and confidently.
“Orientation and mobility specialists matter so much to help being that bridge,” Parker said.
The visit was part of a four-week course led by Parker about navigation methods used by those with vision loss. Students practiced navigating malls, crossing streets and, for one of their final assignments, making their way through the airport.
As part of the visit, students received a presentation and tour from Jill McPherson, Port of Portland terminal operations specialist. They learned about the airport’s accessibility features, including hearing support, touch screen maps and a sensory room with a mock airplane.
McPherson said learning experiences like these are just as beneficial for airport staff as students.
“This also gives our officers an opportunity to work with those that are blind or low vision or hearing impaired or deaf (and show) that they can still get their job done safely and really meet the needs of the guest,” McPherson said.
Portland State University’s accredited program is one of only 12 across the nation — and the only one in the Pacific Northwest — that offers credentials for orientation and mobility specialists. With such few options, Parker’s students are from all over the country.
Becker comes from over 2,600 miles away in Fayette County, W.Va. and is her district’s only teacher of students with visual impairments. She plans to bring the skills she learns in Portland to better serve her K-12 students. Becker also serves as an adjunct professor at Marshall University.
Becker said it’s been special to be part of Parker’s class because she gets to collaborate and learn with others, something she doesn’t typically have the opportunity to do back home.
“I really enjoy having these moments where I do get to be connected with people because most of the time it’s just me bouncing ideas off myself,” Becker said.
Becker’s partner in the exercise, Jasmine Low, said because those within the program come from different backgrounds they are constantly learning from each other. Low is a K-12 teacher of students with visual impairments in Washington.
“It shows us, even as adult learners, there’s a lot of things that bring us together and that are similar, but we’re all completely different learners,” Low said. ” … Seeing the natural diversity between all of our adult learners, reflects down to our students too.”
Even with a wayfinding app, Becker said navigating the airport was overwhelming. The building is extremely crowded, seeing tens of thousands of people a day with an additional 10,000 airport staff members. It’s also noisy with ambient chatter, construction, speaker announcements and alarms.
The journey from the airport’s sensory room to Henry’s Tavern, which typically takes 9 minutes, took Becker 25 minutes while blindfolded.
Even though the journey took a while, Low said it was important that Becker set the pace and made decisions while blindfolded.
Low said the main role of orientation and mobility specialists is to facilitate autonomy and independence for those they work with.
“Independence is the foundation of everything we do,” Low said. ” … As you think about the life of a blind student, they’re being dragged around by their parents. They’re being told what to do at school, and they don’t get to make those decisions for themselves on when they’re going, where they’re going.”
Another student Elika Kainoa said he was interested in pursuing a certification in orientation and mobility because of his own experiences as someone who is visually impaired.
“I had an orientation and mobility teacher growing up and I got to … learn how to navigate the whole world and feel a lot more empowered,” Kainoa said.
It’s that feeling of empowerment that Kainoa wants to pass on to students of his own.
“When I walked outside of Portland State University’s campus for the first time, I felt completely overwhelmed. I could not hear or understand anything. … I felt scared a lot,” Kainoa said. “But after 3-and-a-half weeks of practice I feel so much better now. … We can overcome the overwhelming feelings now, and that’s a big feeling that we give to students.”
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