The various devices and techniques available for nonvisual travel may be evaluated in terms of the mobility coverage they provide. However, the coverage provided varies in relation to the function of the device or technique used. The long cane and the various techniques for its use are designed to provide the traveler with object, surface, and foot-placement preview. This article further refines the definition of those functions while specifying each in terms of its measurement.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which older persons in rural Northeast Thailand felt abandoned by the emigration of their children and the impact this may have on their quality of life. A cross sectional survey, consisting of 113 questions including the 26-item WHOQOL-BREF and the 24-item WHOQOL-OLD was administered to 212 participants. Participants ranged in age from 60 to 107 with a mean age of 71. While only 9% were found to live alone, 20% stated that they felt abandoned to some degree. A one-way between groups MANOVA was conducted to determine if those who felt abandoned differed from those who did not on a single-item question of Overall QOL and the total scores for the WHOQOL-BREF and WHOQOL-OLD. A statistically significant difference was found between the groups on the combined dependent variable [F (3, 208) = 4.75, p = .003; Wilks' Lambda = .94]. When the results for each of the dependent variables were considered separately, statistically significant differences were found on the WHOQOL-BREF [F (1, 210) = 13.61, p < .001] and the WHOQOL-OLD [F (1, 210) = 9.85, p = .001] only.

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The recent explosion in the use of global positioning satellite technology has significantly increased people's ability to maintain place orientation and to store and retrieve information about specific locations, such as businesses, recreational facilities, and geographic attributes (Broida, 2004; El-Rabbany, 2002). Rather than relying on the floating bubblelike compass that once sat on the dashboard and gave a rough estimate of the direction of travel, when a person prepares for a trip to grandmother's house in 2007, he or she now may use a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit that can plan a route to grandmother's house, keep the user on route while traveling there, continually update how much farther

This survey of 560 older adults who were visually impaired or sighted analyzed whether the two groups differed in their levels of activity, independence, and life satisfaction and the degree to which activity and independence contribute to the prediction of life satisfaction. Implications for rehabilitation services are discussed. MethodsThe study was conducted in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Massey University Human Ethics Committee, Palmerston North, New Zealand. A questionnaire was administered to all registered members