Home | Programs | Contact | News & Events | For Parents | For Students | VI Resources | Photos

NMSBVI Orientation & Mobility Inventory
 

The NMSBVI Orientation & Mobility (O&M) Inventory was developed as a means of quantifying student progress across the many areas that make up O&M. The goal was to create a user friendly assessment tool that quickly allowed an O&M to identify areas of need for individual students. Further, there was a need to structure it in such a way as to allow paperwork averse O&Ms to easily track student progress over time. The Inventory aspires to meet these needs.

There are four critical pieces of information that users need to have:

• Never type anything in any colored (red, light yellow, light blue) area.  The shaded areas contain the formulas that do all of the computation work for the user. The formulas even compile all of the information on the Front Page so the user doesn’t need to page through the Inventory to get cobble together a snapshot of student progress. (Writing in the grey shaded areas won’t hurt anything.) To help limit the chances of users inadvertently corrupting the formulas, they have been password protected; users can click on those cells and see the formulas but can’t enter, delete or change those cells. In fact, there areas where users can enter information are decidedly limited—columns F, I, L, O (where data is entered in the various domains), columns H, K, N, Q (where dates can be entered if the user wishes to note days different skills were covered), column R (where notes about individual skills can be written if the user wishes), in any cell where ‘student name’, ‘month’ and ‘year’ appear and all of row 1 on the front page.
• The Inventory is an Excel workbook. Users don’t need to know much of anything about Excel. Users do need to have access to Excel to get it to open.
• Save a copy of the Inventory. Then save another copy of the Inventory somewhere else, like an external drive. Users can even send a copy to an e-mail account. This is important because people inevitably forget to hit ‘save as’ and then become frustrated when it becomes necessary to delete all of the information inadvertently saved to the Inventory file that should have been saved under the name of a student.
• It is recommended that users download the Inventory, select ‘file’, then select ‘save as’ and enter something along the lines of StudentNameO&MInventory for each student. The downloaded form itself, therefore, never has data entered into it; it remains pristine and allows users to make as many copies as needed without ever resorting to deleting information entered for another student.

The Inventory derives percentages based on ratings provided by users. The ratings are simple:

• 0 = The student is not capable of demonstrating the skill. For example, a totally blind student can’t use a magnifier to explore an over the counter map.
• 1 = The student doesn’t not yet demonstrate the skill but may or will learn the skill. For example, a 6 year old isn’t going to discuss the positive and negative aspects of clockwise and counterclockwise street crossings. The same student, when older might master that skill.
• 2 = The student only demonstrates the skill with verbal and/or physical prompting. For example, a student may only move the cane in a protective arc when someone keeps prodding.
• 3 = The student sometimes demonstrates the skill without verbal and/or physical prompting. For example, the student may stop walking when the sidewalk ends on occasion but more often requires a prompt to stop and locate the sidewalk needed to complete the route.
• 4 = The student demonstrates the skill and verbal and/or physical prompting are rarely needed. For example, the student may identify parallel traffic in the near lane almost all of the time but every now and then confuses it with parallel traffic in the far lane.
• 5 = The student demonstrates the skill consistently and without verbal and/or physical prompting. For example, once the student has figured out one cardinal direction the student can always deduce the remaining three.

The user has a couple of options for navigating between pages of the Excel workbook. Most obviously, along the bottom edge of the screen are a number of tabs with names that correspond to the 15 domains covered in the Inventory. Clicking on a tab takes the user to that page. Alternately, at the bottom left of the screen there are arrows pointing left and right. The user can use the two left/right arrows in the middle of the set of four arrows to page through the Excel workbook one page at a time. The user can also use the two left/right arrows on the outside of the set of four arrows to jump to the front or back of the workbook. When the desired tab is seen, clicking on it takes the user to that page.

The Front Page includes the 15 domains covered in the Inventory (3a-17a), blue and yellow shaded areas, an area (1a) to insert the student’s name, and areas to insert the date (1b-1m) the Inventory is completed. Each blue and yellow column represents one assessment. There are 12 total blue and yellow columns which could be used to track progress on one student over 12 assessment periods. Those assessment periods could be quarterly, yearly, or more widely spaced depending on user need. Whatever the time period between assessments, the user will have data in one handy place (the page prints out as one sheet) over multiple assessment periods. 

The other pages of the Inventory have a different layout from the front page. Most importantly, these are the pages where the user enters data. Once the appropriate page has been located the user enters the month (1f) and year (1g) the assessment is being completed. (If the user writes out the month, like ‘November’, most of the word will be hidden behind the next cells.) The user then enters data in the column under “Input Data” (column f). To the left of the column the user will see the criteria. The user then rates the student 0-5 (see above scale, which is repeated on each page of the Inventory). It is easiest to click on the first white cell under “Input Data”, enter the appropriate number, arrow down, enter the appropriate number and so on. Each page contains 12 different assessment periods, which go from left to right and from top to bottom—data is entered in 1f (1^st assessment) then 1i (2^nd assessment) then 1L (3^rd assessment) then 1o (4^th assessment), then down the page to the next set of four. The aggregate data is transferred automatically (so long as the user doesn’t corrupt the formulas) to the front page.

Preliminary usage has indicated that it takes about 30 minutes to complete the Inventory for a student who has worked on almost all of the assessment areas while reassessment takes 10-15 minutes; user mileage will vary. The Inventory was created with the measurable nature of IEPs in mind. Instead of crafting goals such as:

Student name will improve his crossings as demonstrated by consistently identifying parallel traffic in the near lane by pointing to the parallel traffic in the near lane 80% of trials/8 of ten trials by the end of the 2012 school year.

the user has the option of writing a goal such as:

Student name will improve from 69.9% on the street crossing domain of the NMSBVI O&M Inventory to 75% by the end of the 2012 school year.

Or

Student name will improve from 83.3% to 88.5% on the NMSBVI O&M Inventory by the end of the 2012 school year.

The O&M can manipulate the numbers in the assessment to reflect the skills the student needs to improve in the coming year and record the percentages that result when the targeted skills are improved to the degree desired. For example, changing a score from 1 to 5 will impact the percentage for the module and the entire Inventory; the 5 is the target for the end of the year and the percentage that results from the change is what would be used in the IEP goal. (The number is then reset to 1 in this example, and the 5 – when the student earned it – would be in the next assessment period.) The Inventory will also help the O&M identify areas of need in order to focus instruction to the needs of the student. The data is quantifiable and attempts to get away from somewhat nebulous criteria like “90% of the time”.

It is unlikely that many students will score 100% on the NMSBVI O&M Inventory. The Inventory is designed to show progress over time in common areas of O&M instruction, not serve as a letter grade. Also, the Inventory is primarily designed for O&M students who are already in school as well as adults in rehab settings. Users will notice that the Concepts and Movement areas are not as thorough as other O&M tools designed for much younger children. With that being said, the Inventory is free to download by O&Ms regardless of population served; if O&Ms of very young children do find it useful in some way so much the better.

While testing out the Inventory it was revealed that students with multiple impairments tended to score very poorly and that their scores were not likely to improve dramatically over time. The NMSBVI O&M (M)Inventory was created specifically for students with multiple impairments. The 15 domains have been rethought with these students in mind. The result is a tool that will hopefully provide meaningful evaluation of students with MI.

The NMSBVI O&M Inventory and (M)Inventory are tools that O&Ms can use to assist in organizing instruction. They are not intended to replace the training and judgment of Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialists. O&Ms will cover topics not found in the Inventory and (M)Inventory and may not cover some topics in the Inventory and (M)Inventory.

As an added bonus, the Inventory – and (M)Inventory – has also proven useful in quickly dispatching other paperwork, such as PLEPs (Present Levels of Educational Performance) and progress notes in very short amounts of time. Here are examples of a PLEP and progress note (front page of Inventory truncated due to ‘portrait’ layout of this document) using the Inventory:

PRESENT LEVEL OF EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE

According to the NMSBVI O&M Inventory, STUDENT scored well in the domains of concepts, movement, single room O&M, orientation and community skills. STUDENT needed to improve in the domains of street crossings, public transportation, atypical O&M, and vision specific O&M skills. He had already improved his skills in the area of rural travel. STUDENT was eager to learn and wanted to improve his skills. Street crossings would be one of the primary areas of focus and he had already begun to work at an even wider variety of intersections.

PROGRESS REPORT

The measurable annual goals must align with the student’s needs and reflect how they support the student’s post-school goals.

 Other: Orientation & Mobility

ANNUAL GOAL: (direction of change, the behavior, present level, ending level and timeframe for achieving the goal)

Date Initiated __May ?? 2011__________

STUDENT will improve his O&M skills as demonstrated by increasing his score on the NMSBVI O&M Inventory from 64.8% to a minimum of 74% by the end of May 2012.

As you can see, STUDENT has made quite a bit of progress on the Inventory since March. He’s getting close to his goal and will meet it by working in the domains of Street Crossings, Orientation, and Cane Skills. It is important to keep in mind that the 71.4% is not a letter grade but rather how much of the curriculum he has so far mastered.

The above PLEP and progress note were both quick to do and highly informative to a parent who has been given an explanation as to what the Inventory is and how it works. It allows the parent to identify areas were progress is made and ask questions about areas where little or no progress has been made. Even without the accompanying note it’s possible to view the chart and see that much of the progress in the past quarter came in the domains of Rural Travel and Atypical O&M skills. The importance of explaining what the Inventory is to the parents can’t be overstated. In the example above, a parent might wonder why the student scores in the 40s or below in the domains of Indoor O&M, Self Protection, Guided Travel and Cane Skills. An explanation that those domains are heavily weighted towards non-visual skills (which this student did not need) helps parents understand that the low scores in those domains are not an indication of poor performance on the part of the student.

The basic structure for the NMSBVI O&M Inventory was drawn from Hill & Ponder. TAPS was not used as a reference but, as the industry standard for so long, it clearly had an influence on the Inventory. Basic concepts were also drawn from other tools, such as Finding Wheels, via years of experience/exposure to them. Most directly, NMSBVI wishes to thank Dona Sauerburger for her invaluable input on the street crossing section of the Inventory. Her excellent website (www.sauerburger.org) is a tremendous resource for O&Ms.

UPDATE:  August 21, 2012

The NMSBVI O&M Inventory has been updated to version 3.0. This version takes into account feedback from the AER International conference in Seattle. Two issues were raised by several people and have been addressed.

Issue 1: O&Ms wanted to see a change in the scoring so that zeros weren’t averaged into the final percentages. (Zeros represent skills that a student can’t learn or has no need to learn.) In the earlier versions, very few students could ever get to 100% because most students didn’t need all of the skills covered in the Inventory—those with vision didn’t need all of the non-visual skills and those without vision didn’t need the visual skills. After getting pointed in the right direction at AER, a bit more research has led to formulas that ignore the zeros. As a result, each student can get to 100% on the Inventory if they master all of the skills they need for safe and efficient travel.

Issue 2: O&Ms wanted to see a change to the front page to help parents understand that, say, a score of 30% doesn’t equal a failing grade. A section has been added to the front page where an O&M can insert the goal (in the form of a percentage) and the Inventory then shows how much progress has been made to that goal. This should help reassure parents that their student is making progress.

To download the Excel file, please click here:
NMSBVI Orientation & Mobility Inventory, Version 3.0 - Excel Document

To download the Excel file, please click here:
NMSBVI Orientation & Mobility (M) Inventory - Excel Document

Inventory Assessment Checklist
This checklist includes the domains and areas covered in the Inventory. The checklist can fit on one double sided sheet of paper for convenience while walking around with a student and conducting an evaluation.
Download the Inventory Assessment Checklist - Word Document

Inventory Eval. Shell
This shell can be modified to meet program needs. It includes each of the domains and areas within the domains to make report writing quick and easy.
Download the Inventory Eval. Shell - Word Document