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Lil Deverell

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The MTPConnect PodcastThe MTPConnect PodcastARIA Research on Diversity, Human Augmentation and Trialling Breakthrough Bionic GlassesARIA Research is a Sydney-based start-up developing technologies delivering a sense of vision via sound (echolocation) to people who are blind or have low vision. The company’s defining advantage has been its diverse and inclusive team, which incorporates employees and end users living with blindness into every aspect of the project and organisation. Their breakthrough bionic vision system was funded initially through MTPConnect’s BioMedTech Horizons program (see podcast episode 124) and now with support from the Clinical Translation and Commercialisation Medtech program, the company is gearing up for a clinical trial.ARIA Research’s Co-Foun...2023-06-1938 minA Step ForwardA Step Forward115. Understanding your learners who have troubles with spatial awareness with Lil Deverell and Marnie RothI’m so excited to bring Lil Deverell and Marnie Roth to you guys in this week’s episode! Teaching learners who have spatial awareness issues can be difficult especially if they also get frustrated in the process and we’re not sure how to respond to that. Most of us tend to internalise this but what if the problem doesn’t lie within us? That’s what we will be talking about together with Lil and Marnie. Expect to get some amazing insights into what they will be sharing in this episode! Hop on in now! ...2022-12-2148 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with LilEp 35 What is ARIA assistive tech? - RobertRobert Yearsley is CEO of ARIA Research, which stands for Augmented Reality in Audio. ARIA is a new approach to assistive technology being developed with, and for people who are blind. ARIA uses machine learning to turn camera vision into a novel soundscape for the user to interpret during activities of daily living, including orientation and mobility. ARIA is in its early development, and the team is looking for ideas and participation from people with ultra-low vision or blindness, and from O&M specialists. There is opportunity to join in a monthly zoom conversation about assistive technology, and to...2022-03-2326 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil34 O&M pathways to international development - JoJo Webber is a disability inclusion advisor, currently working in Kiribati and Vanuatu. For those interested in international work, Jo challenges us become dual qualified in international development so that we can work with others to create sustainable O&M services in Pacific Island countries.2021-06-0139 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil33 Inventing the Stuart Tactile Maps test - IanOrientation is the vital O in O&M and we might assume that everyone can learn orientation, but this is not the case. How can we assess a person’s ability to learn orientation to new places? The Stuart Tactile Maps test is a table top test of spatial cognition that only takes 10 minutes to administer. Everyone does the test wearing a blindfold whether or not they have vision and the test predicts a person’s ability to use mental mapping for orientation. So where did this test come from? In this episode, I’m talking with Dr Ian Stuart...2021-03-1744 minFreedom Scientific FSCastFreedom Scientific FSCastCivil rights activist Ever Lee Hairston, and O&M instructor Lil DeverellOn FSCast 195 we’ll meet civil rights activist Ever Lee Hairston.  From fighting discrimination and demonstrating with Dr. Martin Luther King, to her journey with vision loss and becoming a leader in the NFB, she has lots of life experience to share.    Then Lil Deverell talks about mental mapping and its impact on how we navigate in the world.2021-02-2450 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil32 The Australian Leadership Paradox - LizHappy new year, in late February! In this first episode for 2021, I have a dream... and I’m talking with Liz Skelton, who also has a vision for an equitable and inclusive society where people, place, and planet thrive. In 2013, Liz and co-author Geoff Aigner published a book called The Australian Leadership Paradox. They identify four paradoxes in Australian leadership culture that we need to grapple with if we want to embrace positive change in the low vision and blindness sector.2021-02-2244 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil31 Guide dogs with wheelchairs and complex needs - LeeLee Stanway is a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor based in the UK who specialises in tricky dog matches. He works with people who have low vision or blindness and use a wheelchair, or need assistance with tasks around the home, or an epilepsy alert, or help to hear the doorbell, along with the guiding function of the dog.2020-12-1744 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil30 Social navigation in the Pacific islands - BenBen Clare is an inclusive education adviser, scholarship facilitator, and regular visitor to the Pacific Islands, having also lived in the Solomon Islands and Samoa for several years. Ben has no light perception and some spatial challenges, so he has learned to build networks and travel confidently in multiple countries using his long cane and fabulous social navigation skills. Ben is convener of the first online SPEVI conference, 18-19 January 2021.2020-12-1043 minA Step ForwardA Step Forward57. The Correlation Between Mental Mapping Skills and OrientationNavigating the world around our everyday lives can be tricky at times. It’s even trickier when it comes to new places that we are unfamiliar with. This is where the importance of spatial awareness and mental mapping came to play. How exactly do we subjectively assess and teach mental mapping skills to our students? In this week’s podcast, we are so excited to have Lil Deverell with us. Lil has been an O&M specialist since 1993, starting out with a full caseload, in Australia. She then focused on clients with brain injury and children with mult...2020-12-0857 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil29 Life skills for being-in-the-unseen-world - ErrolErrol Ingram is an O&M Specialist who completed a PhD thesis in 2019 called The Lived Experience of Acquiring Life Skills with Congenital Total Blindness: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. How did Errol realise he had a PhD in him waiting to get out? And what did he discover about the life skills needed for being-in-the-never-seen-world, including orientation and mobility skills?2020-12-0344 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil28 Learning life skills at blind and mainstream schools - JoeJoe Stephen is a blind software developer from Adelaide, now living in Tasmania. He has written an article reflecting on his experience starting at a blind primary school, then moving into mainstream secondary schools, before completing a Bachelor of Science (Computer Studies) at Flinders University.  Joe suggests we need both specialist and mainstream education options. But if blind schools are a thing of the past, then we need to find other ways for blind kids to build life skills so they can transition more smoothly into adulthood.2020-11-2644 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil27 Doing inner work - PeterIn Orientation and Mobility practice, it is a privilege to hear and hold another person’s story as we hatch a plan of action together. But we can crash around in other people’s lives if we don’t pause to understand how our own expectations, priorities and agendas affect our relationships. Peter Bentley, spiritual director and Enneagram teacher encourages us to notice what inhibits life and what brings joy. Peter explains many ways to do our own inner work, so we can work effectively with others in building healthy relationships and healthy workplaces.2020-11-1944 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil26 Using the Enneagram to work on health - JaneJane Bradley is a Seeing Eye Dog Instructor and a self-confessed behaviour nerd, interested in how learning works across the species. We discuss the Enneagram personality model. The Enneagram can be used to understand our own personality type and our relationship with other types at home and in the workplace. We can gain insight into the motivations, priorities, and trigger points of colleagues. By identifying the direction of integration/health of a person’s type, we can identify circumstances and opportunities in the workplace that will help that person grow and flourish. This strategy can be applied to ourselves, an...2020-11-1240 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil25 Doing a cultural audit in a toxic workplace - TimA toxic workplace makes people sick, and when we recognise this problem we need to do something about it. Morale spirals downwards, physical symptoms increase, mental health suffers, people leave, wounded, and the workforce is depleted. Tim Dyer, organisational consultant, shows how a cultural audit can help us evaluate what and who we’re working with in our own organisation. We can celebrate the signs of health and growth. We can also bring aspects of unhealthy culture into the light of day, but there is a cost. It takes courage, wisdom, and external support. Should I stay or should I...2020-11-0542 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil24 Embracing otherness with personality models - TimTim Dyer is an organisational consultant based in Tasmania. Twenty years ago, Tim came to my mums’ group and said, “If you learn a personality model – it doesn’t really matter which one – it gives you a common language to understand how people are different to each other. Then you can raise your children to be themselves, not you.” This was very good advice, not just at home, but at work too. We explore how personality models can help us understand others in the workplace.2020-10-2944 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil23 Creating an International O&M Online Symposium - KassyKassandra Maloney is a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS), living in Austin, Texas. After working at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired for 11 years, she set out solo as Allied Independence. Kassy knows what it’s like to be tied to home with two babies during early mothering, while her O&M colleagues disappeared to an International Mobility Conference in Dublin. But she’s a millennial, undaunted by technology and entrepreneurship. Kassy and her team created the International O&M Online Symposium, using their tech skills to make professional development accessible to O&M Specialists arou...2020-10-2239 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil22 Navigating the world of work - BruceThe O&M profession in Australia is in the midst of a revolution and some O&M specialists are feeling the pinch. This is the first in a series of episodes looking more closely at the world of work. We’ll be discussing workplace health, toxicity and tools for developing resilience in a time of extraordinary change. Bruce Everett is an international change consultant with a background in business and commerce, and more recent experience in the not-for profit sector. He offers us a useful outsider’s perspective on navigating change with a growth mindset in the O&M indu...2020-10-1538 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil21 Captivated by the CVI Range - LauraLaura Garcia is mum to Eva, now aged 8. When she was one year old, Eva contracted herpes simplex virus, which passed the blood-brain barrier and damaged Eva’s visual cortex. The result was CVI – cortical visual impairment – with no visual response. Laura was desperate for resources that would guide her in mothering Eva. She discovered the CVI Range, which became a place of obsession for a year, and she used the CVI Range to assess Eva every month. During this time Laura learned to recognise the 10 characteristics that are described in the CVI Range, and what she could do to hel...2020-10-0844 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil20 Accessible adventures with Cocky Guides - BuckCocky Guides is a small group tour company, based in Sydney, specialising in accessible adventures for people with low vision or blindness. Why wait for people who are sight-seeing when you can try hang-gliding, go sailing or tour the wineries with other keen travellers? Buck McFarlane guides us through some accessible Australian adventures, while planning future tours to New Zealand and Tonga, with spare long canes in hand. He has inspired a possible parallel career for O&M specialists as a tour guide. If only I weren’t so good at missing planes…2020-10-0138 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil19 Independent O&M in Kiribati - JessJess Timmons is an independent Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist who also works as a disability support worker and access consultant in Melbourne. In 2019 she volunteered to accompany an independent consultant with low vision to Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean. Kiribati (population 110,000) is a nation of coral islands straddling the equator and the international dateline. Jess describes daily life, disability, access and the challenges involved in sustainable community development through the lens of O&M.2020-09-2443 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil18 VROOM and OMO with an international jetsetter - MeredithDr Meredith Prain is a speech pathologist who works with people who have deafblindness and she travels internationally on her own. She has low vision from Leber’s so was curious to discover her own VROOM and OMO scores. Merry rated 32/50 for functional vision and 41/50 for orientation and mobility, and she wanted to explore what she could do to push that OMO score up to 50.2020-09-1744 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil17 Accessing street corners with 3D printing - LeonaThis week we meet Leona Holloway from Monash University. Leona entered the world of braille transcription straight after uni and is now a passionate advocate of inclusive technologies and accessible graphics for people with low vision or blindness. She is currently developing guidelines for 3D printing so that 3D models are accessible to touch readers. She is also working with O&M specialists to create 3D printed intersections we can use to teach street crossings.2020-09-1039 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil16 CVI through the eyes of an orthoptist - NataliaNatalia Kelly is an orthoptist from Melbourne who was captivated by cortical visual impairment (CVI) from the start of her career 17 years ago. Since then, the scope of practice for orthoptists has expanded in Australia. In her private practice, Vision Matters, Natalia does specialised work using biofeedback to reinforce eccentric viewing for reading, reducing the font size for some patients from n80 to n10! Meanwhile, her fascination with CVI continues. She delights in working with children and their families to investigate CVI, to understand the reasons for curious visual behaviours and work out how to stimulate functional vision, including...2020-09-0442 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil15 Bears, snow and earthquakes - AlanaAlana Bogart is an O&M specialist from Canada who now works for Blind Low Vision New Zealand. Alana takes us on a journey into the snow-bound villages and islands of British Columbia at minus 25 degrees, where she worked with First Nations people. She learned to call a cane a stick, fall down safely in the snow, and look out for bears. In Christchurch, she found some clients were more interested in learning long cane skills after the earthquakes – it seems that independent travel skills are handy in a crisis!2020-08-2733 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil14 Fostering professional development - DarrenThis episode, we’re talking with Darren Moyle, an O&M Specialist who works for Vision Australia in Melbourne. Darren has a passion for integrating sport and technology into O&M programs. He loves working with kids and he has just become a dad himself. Darren describes some of his Aha! moments in training as an O&M specialist 9 years ago, the things he finds life-giving about the job, and his own use of technology in navigating public transport and travel while working in Melbourne suburbia as an O&M specialist who has low vision. Darren is on the pr...2020-08-2034 minNextSense Institute PodcastNextSense Institute PodcastEpisode 57 - Lil Deverell - NextSense Institute PodcastLil Deverell joins us to talk about her personal experience with adult diagnosed AHDH. Transcript: Click here to download | https://www.adhdaustralia.org.au/   2020-08-1724 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil13 Toddling with CVI - Luka, Heidi and BronwenToday we meet Bronwen Scott and Heidi Zec. Bronwen is an independent Orientation and Mobility Specialist and Heidi is the mother of Luka, a delightful two year old with cortical visual impairment. They have worked together with Luka for the past 18 months to help develop his functional vision in the context of daily routines. This year Bronwen and Heidi have joined forces to create the CVI Community Australia. This online group connects and supports parents and professionals who are navigating the world of CVI. Heidi and Bronwen remind us that CVI is different to ordinary low vision. It is...2020-08-1343 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil12 Co-rating COVID isolation - Ross and JoshFour years ago, traveling independently in inner city Melbourne, Ross de Vent scored VROOM 14/50 for his functional vision (Fragments), and OMO 33/50 for his functional mobility (Capable). Ross now lives on the fringe of metropolitan Melbourne and has been in COVID isolation with his household and guide dog for the past 4 months. Today, we found that Ross’ vision and mobility scores have both dropped to VROOM 6/50 (Fifty shades of grey) and OMO 28/50 (Cautious), despite his clinical vision remaining stable. The drop in VROOM rating suggests that it not worth looking when there is nothing new to look at in the CO...2020-08-0644 minNextSense Institute PodcastNextSense Institute PodcastEpisode 55 - Lil Deverell - NextSense Institute PodcastThis week, Lil Deverell talks to us about measuring functional vision and implications for orientation and mobility specialists.   www.lildeverell.net | OMAA Online Symposium website   Transcript: Click here! 2020-08-0329 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil11 Co-rating wee bairns with VROOM and OMO - LisaLisa Petrie is an Habilitation Specialist with Guide Dogs UK, based in Scotland. Lisa enjoys working with children who have complex needs, and she also manages O&M services for adults, children and young people (CYP). Lisa and her teams have been piloting the VROOM and OMO functional assessment tools with all ages. In 2018, we tested out the VROOM and OMO tools assessing the functional vision and mobility skills of two year old boys, Theo and Luke. They both have CVI – cerebral visual impairment – and travel in a manual wheelchair. In this episode, we get an update on these wee...2020-07-3043 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil10 Aha! moments with VROOM and OMO - DianaDiana Grobler works in northern New South Wales, serving orientation and mobility clients across a large region. She has many older clients with macular degeneration who love to chat. Diana is a relative newbie in the O&M field, but she has done 12 or 13 VROOM and OMO assessments this year, both face to face and via tele-practice. Diana shares with us some of her Aha! moments, and questions that have arisen while using the VROOM and OMO tools during COVID restrictions.2020-07-2343 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil9 Comparisons and Precision with VROOM and OMOIn Episode 5 we did a did a VROOM and OMO assessment with Erica Tandori, who scored 29/50 for her functional vision and 39/50 for her functional mobility. Erica chooses not to use a mobility aid most of the time, relying on her peripheral vision and fabulous mental mapping skills to maintain her orientation and her safety on familiar routes like the public transport trip to work. But Erica likes to take an arm when walking in less familiar places. This frees up her vision to look around and enjoy what she sees. The co-rating conversation with Erica has raised questions about...2020-07-1637 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil8 Choosing environmental complexity in VROOM and OMO assessmentsOrientation and Mobility (O&M) textbooks talk about indoor and outdoor travel skills. Outdoor places are usually classified according to their purpose or zoning – residential, semi-business and business environments, petrol stations and shopping centres. However, environmental purpose doesn’t necessarily tell us about complexity. It can be easier to cross at the traffic lights in the city than an uncontrolled residential road. The O&M Environmental Complexity Scale provides a way to think about the aspects of complexity that matter to clients. We can use it to rough-sort any environment in the world into one of six levels without gett...2020-07-0942 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil7 Measuring Mel's ups and downs with VROOM and OMOMel Stephens is an independent 26 year old, horse-loving train tragic with no light perception and an addiction to cruises. Mel was a research participant in the Bionic Vision Australia project in 2013, so she was there at the inception and birth of the VROOM and OMO functional assessment tools. We have now done four VROOM and OMO ratings with Mel over a seven year period. The VROOM tool captured her decline from low vision to blindness from Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis. The OMO tool captured her dip in energy while living in the big smoke, then a return of energy as...2020-07-0243 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil6 What do the VROOM and OMO numbers mean?In this episode, Jo Anson-Smith, an orientation and mobility specialist from Newcastle, reports the VROOM and OMO scores for the client she assessed through tele-practice a few weeks ago. Let’s call him Ken. We also revisit Erica Tandori’s VROOM and OMO results from last episode. I explain how we can interpret these results in 10 point categories, with F words for VROOM categories and C words for OMO categories. Jo explains some of her decision-making challenges in using these assessment tools, and we explore the implications of mid-range low vision – the Formwork category – where Ken and Erica see linear s...2020-06-2533 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil5 A co-rating conversation with Erica - Interview onlyErica Tandori is a visual artist with two kids, a cat, a hole in the backyard, a doctorate, a university job, and Stargardt’s Disease. This juvenile form of macular degeneration means that Erica has trouble seeing what she is looking at directly, but her peripheral vision is still useful. Erica describes it as colourful, soft and blurry like “living in a Monet painting,” with the occasional visual hallucination to keep her guessing. Erica has not had orientation and mobility training, but she was interested in doing a VROOM and OMO assessment via interview. We discussed the environments where Erica...2020-06-1844 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil4 Using VROOM and OMO for the first time - in telepracticeJo Anson-Smith is a dual qualified Occupational Therapist/Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist working in Newcastle, Australia. When we talked with Jo in Episode 2, she was exploring tele-practice with occupational therapy clients, but she hadn’t yet made the leap into O&M tele-practice. In this episode we talk with Jo about teaching the long cane to a man with intellectual disability, via Zoom. Then Jo describes her first VROOM and OMO functional assessment with a client, via FaceTime – how she prepared, the technology she used, what worked well, and some scoring questions that arose: what if we don...2020-06-1138 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil3 What are the VROOM and OMO tools?This episode introduces VROOM and OMO – two functional assessment tools created by an O&M specialist who loves ridiculous acronyms. VROOM stands for vision-related outcomes in orientation and mobility, and OMO stands for orientation and mobility outcomes. These are constructivist (not objective or subjective) assessment tools designed to co-rate a client’s functional vision and mobility, giving each a score out of 50. We meet Ewa Borkowski from Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, whose team is using the VROOM and OMO tools during ordinary O&M assessment. This includes working from the COVID cave.2020-06-0532 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil2 Working from the COVID caveThis podcast is recorded in the time of Coronavirus lockdown, when Orientation and Mobility (O&M) specialists are fast needing to learn about tele-practice. We meet four O&M specialists from Guide Dogs NSW/ACT who are venturing into the brave new world of O&M tele-practice:  Amy McKibbins, Zoë Gephart, Tayler McBrien, and Jo Anson-Smith2020-05-2734 minRO&Ming with LilRO&Ming with Lil1 Welcome to RO&Ming with LilThis episode introduces ROaMing with Lil. It describes the role of an Orientation and Mobility Specialist, and a profession that does its best work on street corners! ROaMing with Lil is intended to provide a forum for people to learn more about functional vision, and orientation and mobility practice from an Australian perspective. It offers professional development for O&M specialists and guide dog mobility instructors worldwide. 2020-05-2704 min