EXHIBITS AT SOMA’s
O&M Conference December 10-13, 2022
Polara designs and manufacturers Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS), which use voice messages to announce the Walk and Don't Walk signals at intersection and midblock crosswalks.
Our APS works with a free smartphone app called PedApp, available for iOS and Android, that allows users to activate the crosswalk button from their phone. It gives extra information about the intersection as pedestrians approach and announces the signal audibly. A demo APS will be set up at our booth so you can test it out!
- Download PedApp on the Apple App Store
- Download PedApp on the Google Play Store
For more information about APS, including tips for requesting accessible signals for crossings in your community, drop by our booth, visit our website, or give us a call at 903-366-0300.
Invision is currently seeking dual-certified TVIs/COMS to serve students in North Carolina and Minnesota schools.
Invision is a private practice contracting agency that provides services to students with sensory impairments in North Carolina and Minnesota,
serving people of all ages with sensory impairments and other disabilities that impact learning, activities or daily living, and mobility.
Reasons to work for Invision:
- Earn well above standard teacher salary
- Receive pay for all direct/indirect services without extra school duties
- Flexible schedule allows for maximum income potential
- Benefits for full-time employees including paid professional development
- Signing, referral, and performance
Julie Bardin julie.bardin@invisionservicesinc.com
The Seeing Eye is a philanthropic organization whose mission is to enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of blind people through the use of Seeing Eye® dogs.
We breed, raise, and train dogs to guide people who are blind or visually impaired, and bring people from across the United States and Canada to our campus in Morristown, New Jersey, to be instructed in their care and use.
For more information about our program, please call 800-539-4425, email info@seeingeye.org, or visit www.seeingeye.org.
Experience the benefits in working with AIS:
- Excellent compensation
- Ability to set your own schedule - you can determine the amount of time you want to work from a few hours a week to full time
- Paid travel time
- Paid materials preparation/documentation time
- Access to AIS Resource Staff knowledgeable in your field
- Being part of a team that has an excellent reputation for delivering quality services and respects the knowledge that you bring to the job
Come put your skills to work with a company that appreciates your talents and together we can make a difference in the life of a child. Please apply at alliedinstructional.com or call us at 804-368-8475.
Southeastern Guide Dogs transforms lives by creating and nurturing extraordinary partnerships between people and dogs. We breed, raise, and train elite guide dogs, service dogs, and skilled companion dogs and provide life-changing services for people with vision loss, veterans with disabilities, and children with significant challenges. We offer our premier dogs and lifetime follow-up services at no cost. Southeastern Guide Dogs offers the most robust Alumni Support program in North America.
For our clients with vision loss, we offer guide dogs for adults of all ages and for mature teens ages 15 and up. We also provide Kids Companion Dogs for children with vision loss ages 5 and up. For our working guide dog teams, our expansive Alumni Support program includes-at no cost-in-home visits by certified instructors; phone support; premium dog food, sponsored by Fromm Family Pet Foods; flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives, sponsored by Elanco; and annual veterinarian visits and vaccinations. Visit www.GuideDogs.org
Leader Dogs for the Blind is a nonprofit organization providing people who are blind or visually impaired with lifelong skills for safe and independent daily travel using a guide dog or a white cane. Leader Dogs offers free
These free programs include room, board, and airfare from all over the US and Canada.
Leader Dog offers additional resources including monthly Collaboration Events,
Virtual Learning modules,
continuing education credits
for orientation and mobility specialists and a podcast called Taking the Lead.
For more information, call (888) 777-5332 or visit LeaderDog.org.
The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB) is thrilled to have the opportunity to present information about our programs with our O&M peers and other stakeholders.
O&M staff members James Crozier and Carl Jacobson, who have over 50 years of combined experience, are looking forward to sharing information about our school, answering any questions, and collaborating about services provided to children with a visual impairment.
Please stop by our exhibit. We have lots of swag, treats, interactive games, smiling faces, and an exuberance that we get an opportunity to interact with our fellow professionals in person. Look forward to seeing everyone soon.
Non-24 Hour Sleep Wake Disorder (Non-24) is a serious chronic circadian rhythm disorder that can affect people with total blindness and those who are sighted. It causes nighttime sleep problems and a wide range of daytime difficulties, including an overwhelming urge to sleep during the day that can affect one's ability to do everyday tasks or activities - at work, school, or in social settings.
Like PODCASTS?!
Click this link to access podcasts addressing interesting topics
like
- Understanding the Body Clock and Sleep Wake Cycles,
- Navigating Career Development with Non-24,
- Maintaining Healthy Relationships with Non-24, and more!
Ready to schedule a Non-24 educational presentation with a nurse educator? Click here to start your request!
Find answers to your questions about Non-24 by calling a Vanda health educator at 1-855-856-2424.
The StellarTrek, as the name suggests, is an exceptional digital orientation and mobility assistant with state-of-the-art GPS technology and a user-friendly tactile interface with buttons to guide you along your chosen route using appropriate voice commands. The integrated optical sensor and artificial intelligence locate and recognize street addresses, doors, and entrances and provide audio and voice guidance to the last 40 feet of your destination. All to gain autonomy!
We will also feature products from Humanware, HIMS, LVI, SightCare, and Vision Buddy, including braille tablets, braille displays, video magnifiers, and wearable technology.
Lesa Kretschmer lesa@floridareading.com
- 800-981-5119
Ambutech is excited to be back at the SOMA conference! As some of you may know Gordon Hudek, our long time VP of Sales and Marketing is retiring at the end of this year so this will
be a great opportunity to introduce myself as his replacement.
My name is Candace Young and I will be taking on the role of General Manager with Ambutech.
I have been with the company for over 30 years, in a variety of roles but with the same passion and
energy that everyone at Ambutech has.
I hope you will stop by and introduce yourself and as always, we look forward to hearing from each of you what
Ambutech can improve on!
Candace Young, cyoung@ambutech.com
The puzzle of why blind toddlers struggle meeting the 18-month 'walks well' milestone has been solved! The reason for these harmful motor delays is vision’s essential role in transitioning from holding on to a couch/hand (haptic feedback) to letting go and walking is that 15-month walking requires visual feedback. The solution for toddlers who are blind is providing them a mobile form haptic feedback for balance. Blind toddlers do not need vision to walk independently on time, they can continue to let go of the couch and still rely on haptic feedback by wearing their Safe Toddles's Belt cane.
The solution for toddlers who are blind or mobility visually impaired to walk independently with safety is wearing a belt cane which provides them a mobile form of haptic feedback. No More Couches! Let Go of the Hand and Explore wearing a belt cane.
Safe Toddles is a non-profit. Our mission is to provide toddlers who are blind or mobility visually impaired with a solution for walking independently with safety.
For more information: SafeToddles.org 845-244-6600
We are happy to be attending the first face to face SOMA Conference in a while!
Please stop by and become acquainted or reacquainted with our Kit and all that it can do to help others understand the impact of low vision.
Since 1979, the Zimmerman Low Vision Simulation Kit has been used by thousands of sighted individuals world wide to gain a better understanding of the functional impact of visual impairment or low vision.
These vision simulators are excellent devices to use when conducting an in-service, workshop, or for demonstration purposes on the topic of visual impairment and low vision.?
The Kit contains goggles and interchangeable visual acuity and visual pathology simulations, as well as peripheral field restriction simulations that allow family, friends, colleagues, and those who work with individuals who have low vision, to better understand the affect that low vision has on mobility, learning, employment, and activities of daily living.
145 River Rock Drive
Buffalo, NY 14207
The Catalog of Products for the Visually Impaired and Hard of Hearing
Download the new catalog here: LS&S New 2021-22 Catalog Download
Phone: 800-468-4789 x 218 | Fax 847-498-2648 |Direct 716-348-3518 | www.LSSproducts.com |"We Try Because You Try"
A2A is a premier distributor of Low Vision and Blindness Products that include desktop video magnifiers, portable video magnifiers, handheld video magnifiers, software, braille embossers, braille displays and more in Virginia, West Virginia, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Georgia and Florida.
Ability2Access provides schools, government agencies and individuals with the highest quality low vision and blindness products, software and trainings.
The President, Julie Akers, of Ability2Access has over 15 years of experience in the low vision and blindness industry and is dedicated to improving the outcomes and facilitating the independence of individuals with visual impairments or blindness.
Our partners include: LVI;
Freedom Scientific;
Optelec;
Irie-AT;
Viewplus;
HIMS;
HandyTech;
Envision;
Hable One
OMSA mission is to promote, shape, and advance the profession of Orientation and Mobility.
OMSA is membership organization dedicated to advancing the profession of orientation and mobility (O&M); and actively collaborating with persons who are visually impaired, organizations who represent or provide services to those who are visually impaired, and other stakeholders.
OMSA major activities include: facilitate continuing education; advancing the qualifications of individuals who provide O&M services; encouraging professional certification; supporting the development of professional standards for the provision of O&M services at state and federal levels; supporting best practice in the provision of O&M services; collaborating with higher education O&M programs; providing and disseminating recommended guidelines and information regarding professional and personal liability insurance; serving as a clearinghouse for materials and information related to best practices; and encouraging presentations and publications of professional O&M studies and best practice activities.
usomsa.org
