Development of a Competency-Based Scale to Assess Expertise of Orientation and Mobility Specialists in Long-Cane Training

Abstract

― 156 ― In the present study, a competency-based assessment scale was developed to evaluate the expertise of orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists in long-cane training. In Survey 1, 2 O&M specialists developed a 45-item questionnaire, based on fındings by Horiuchi et al. (2008, in Japanese) that had suggested 3 viewpoints for long-cane training as part of the expertise of O&M specialists, and the resulting questionnaire was mailed to O&M specialists. Factor analyses, performed on the data obtained from 101 respondents, revealed that the questionnaire had 3 subscales, each of which was comprised of 10 items. The 3 factors were competency to utilize environmental cues to help individuals with visual impairments and blindness walk (factor 1), competency to evaluate the walking ability of individuals with visual impairments and blindness (factor 2), and competency to instruct individuals with visual impairments and blindness appropriate techniques considering their walking ability to environmental cues (factor 3). Cronbach’s α ranged from 0.86 to 0.91, showing high reliability. In Survey 2, in order to validate the scale, the O&M specialists’ data from Survey 1 were classifıed into 3 groups in relation to the length of each individual’s career as an O&M specialist: beginners (5 years or fewer), “pre-matured” (6 to 10 years), and matured (11 years or more). Correlations between length of career as an O&M specialist and the subscale scores ranged from low to moderate. An analysis of variance indicated that the “pre-matured” group’s scores were signifıcantly higher than the scores of the beginner group on factor 2, and the scores of the matured specialists were signifıcantly higher than the beginners’ scores on factor 3. The discussion deals with the reliability and validity of the scale.