OMAA Conference 2025

 

OMAA Conference 2025: Independent And Working Together

The two-day live conference was held in Sydney, on 14-15 March 2025 at the Macquarie University campus, Australian Hearing Hub.

 

Conference Reflections

The OMAA Conference 2025 was the perfect place to demonstrate O&M ideas, research involvement, and O&M toolbox items.

The conference provided the participants the opportunity to engage with presenters and audience members through a range of activities, looking at new options, approaches and perspectives in Orientation and Mobility. It offered perspectives from both the professionals that support orientation and mobility, and from people who are blind or have low vision who use these skills in their everyday lives.

Click here to access the fantastic full conference program.

Click here for more reflections on the conference, Orientation and Mobility new options, approaches and perspectives.

 

Keynote Speakers & Podcasts

The OMAA Conference Organising Committee are excited to announce the Keynote Speakers for the OMAA Conference 2025

Daniel Kish will be providing a keynote address on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: a framework for collaborative facilitation of Self-determination, inclusion, and Belonging. Daniel offers a paradigm and framework of self-determined freedom. The reach for freedom is foremost behind development and adaptation at any age, especially the formative years. From the first moments of life, this primal thirst for freedom is self-directed with age appropriate support. It drives every developmental stage throughout the lifespan toward self-determination, leading toward equitable and respected community inclusion, belonging, and achievement. We will understand some of the basic mechanisms around this process, including the ACTS strategic framework (adaptation, Capacity, Technology, and support), SEEING dynamics (Security, Equality, Efficacy, Identity, Negotiation, and Gracefulness), and five functional domains (Mind, Body, Social, Symbolic, and Object). Using a collaborative model of instruction (teaching, coaching, mentorship, and partnership), we will better understand how to support development and minimize disruption of these mechanisms. Listen to Daniel and Trudy discuss his keynote in episode 134 of the NextSense Institute Podcast.

 

John Ravenscroft will be providing a Keynote address on why understanding the difference between Voxels and Perception is important in supporting children with Cerebral Visual Impairment through daily living activities and orientation and mobility. You can listen to John discuss this topic in NextSense Institute podcast episode 132.

 

Tristan Clare will be providing a Keynote address on shifting from navigating to work, to navigating for life. Ben Clare will be discussing travel in unfamiliar, hazardous environments, challenges and improvisation to maintain independence. You can listen to the Clare siblings discuss these thought provoking topics in NextSense Institute Podcast episode 133.

 

Thanks to our supporters, sponsors and exhibitors