Global Utilities

La Trobe University
University Handbook 2010

Graduate certificates and postgraduate diploma courses

Graduate Diploma in Orientation and Mobility – Melbourne (Bundoora) (HGOM)

Tel: (03) 9479 5815

Email: studyorthoptics@latrobe.edu.au

Web: www.latrobe.edu.au/orthoptics/

Duration: 1 year full-time

This one year full-time course of study enables suitably qualified graduates to become instructors in orientation and mobility. The orientation and mobility instructor’s principal role is to teach people with severe vision impairment to travel safely and independently by foot and public transport. Instructors in orientation and mobility are required by organisations that provide services to people with vision impairment or other disabilities in orientation and mobility. As well as learning about the theoretical basis of orientation and mobility, instruction methods and program development, the student will become highly skilled in the techniques of blind mobility.

Admission requirements

Applicants must have a degree in the health sciences, special education or in the behavioural sciences. Applicants will be selected on academic merit and demonstrated interest in the provision of services to people with special needs, especially needs in rehabilitation.

Course structure

This course is normally undertaken full-time over one year. The subjects required are as follows:

Teaching period Subject code Subject title Credit Points
TE-SEM-1 ORT3TMA Theory of Orientation and Mobility A 15
TE-SEM-1 ORT3MMA Orientation and Mobility Methods A 15
TE-SEM-1 ORT3MMB Orientation and Mobility Methods B 15
TE-SEM-1 HBS2CAN Clinical Anatomy and Neurosciences 15
TE-SEM-2 ORT3TMB Theory of Orientation and Mobility B 15
TE-SEM-2 ORT3OPH Ophthalmic Disorders 30
TE-SEM-2 ORT3OFP O&M Field Placement 15