Supporting Orientation & Mobility Instruction

• In 2021, GoodMaps – with funding from American Printing House (APH) – partnered with seven schools across the U.S. to deploy indoor maps on each school’s campus.
• Then, during the 2021–22 academic year, Orientation and Mobility (O&M) teachers engaged their students in the use of the GoodMaps app.
• Following this, in Spring 2022, a research team visited each school to explore how GoodMaps could support students learning orientation and mobility and their teachers instructional efforts.
• As a result of this study, the GoodMaps team gained valuable insights about usability, the user experience, and ways the app could be improved and enhanced to serve O&M students and teachers.

Our Commitment

Making the World’s Indoor Spaces 
More Inclusive, Interactive, and Joyful for All

GoodMaps is committed to providing teachers and students with the technology and resources to develop vital skills that support independent travel. Independent travel fosters self-esteem and confidence and improves quality of life as students learn to move freely. Thus, O&M instruction involves working with students on concept development, including spatial awareness, cardinal direction, laterality, knowledge of environments, leveraging other senses (i.e., sound, touch, smell), and protective techniques. O&M specialists also help students learn routes to and from classrooms and offices within school settings. Combined with traditional O&M skills, we believe that GoodMaps can enhance a student’s confidence, independence, and self-determination. Likewise, using technology effectively in daily life is a vital 21st-century skill that requires digital literacy. GoodMaps is committed to helping foster those skills as students grow and learn.

Our Curriculum

Fostering O&M, Digital Literacy Skills

During our research with partner schools, teachers and students alike expressed a desire for GoodMaps to provide an O&M curriculum that is custom-made for teaching O&M and technology use together. “Teachers love ready-made curriculum,” one teacher said. “I think many of us would love to have pre-made lessons we could draw from” that integrate GoodMaps as an assistive technology. Likewise, teachers indicated that this type of offering would increase their motivation to integrate GoodMaps into the regular O&M curriculum at their schools. As a result, we created a special curriculum to accompany the app that includes specific lessons O&M teachers can implement. Freely available to any school or teacher, the GoodMaps Curriculum includes lesson plans, assignments, activities, and assessments that can be used in any O&M class.

Access the GoodMaps Curriculum

Partner Schools

Currently Accessible in Eight U.S. Schools

• California School for the Blind (Fremont, CA)
• Kentucky School for the Blind (Louisville, KY)
• Perkins School for the Blind (Boston, MA)
• South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Aberdeen, SD)
• Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Austin, TX)
• Utah School for the Deaf and Blind (Ogden, UT)
• Washington State School for the Blind (Vancouver, WA)
• Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Janesville, WI)