For many years, I had the idea for a global center for the study of orientation and mobility. I envisioned the center as a multi-layered service, gathering and storing information, debating issues, monitoring future trends. For a while, I established a non-profit organization called International Mobility Services. IMS never went anywhere, mostly because I was a father and a teacher with a full case load; there never was enough time.
Years passed and the kids got older. In the early 1980s, I set up a non-profit vision clinic for handicapped children in Saginaw, Michigan, called the Special Needs Clinic. Then, in 1997 using my experience establishing the vision clinic, I set up a second non-profit agency called the Institute for Innovative Blind Navigation (IIBN). This time my aspirations for a global center for the study of orientation and mobility worked out; IIBN is a well respected international center for the promotion of wayfinding technologies.
What started out as a few files on the emerging internet (this web site) has blossomed into a large knowledge base housing three e-books. IIBN (with guidance and a partnership with Dr. Tom Hwang at Michigan State University) set up two listserves with a membership over 1,000; included are mobility specialists, consumers, inventors, students, and university staff.
Book One: Teaching Orientation and Mobility to Blind Children
Book Two: Advances in Wayfinding Technology