Participation in ecologically valid activities: Mobility and rehabilitation in an African environment

Abstract

A major problem among visually impaired people is the lack of competence in travel and functional mobility skills intertwined with passivity and dependence on others. This paper describes how focussing on participation in ecologically valid activities can provide a frame for involvement in cultural practices for visually impaired persons. Participation in activities is partly a function of mobility and mobility skills. The study focussed attention on mobility route learning related to desirable activities, which in the present study were co-ordinated through agreed-upon tasks defined in a working method adapted to an African environment. The results show that participation in activities varied among the spheres of activity and age groups and that dependence on others was mainly observed for activities that required a travelling effort in order to reach them. Furthermore, the results show that mobility route training, when associated with reaching desired goals, seemed to influence other domains of activit...