Welcome to ROaM – that’s Research, Orientation and Mobility with Lil Deverell.
Background
I am an Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Specialist, based in pataway/Burnie in lutruwita/NW Tasmania, Australia. I am married to Garry; we have two grown-up daughters, and extended family in Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Cambridge UK.
My O&M tribe also extends internationally from Australia to New Zealand, Fiji, Malaysia, UK, Europe, Canada and the USA. I enjoy meeting up with colleagues online and in person at conferences.
My O&M interests are diverse, involving infinitely interesting people, multiple disabilities, neurodiversity, visual efficiency training, spatial cognition and alternatives to mental mapping, relationships between mental health and mobility, safety neurosis, functional outcome measures for use in O&M practice, employment, trauma informed practice, personality models, professional standards, professional training pathways, international O&M certification, and any research that helps O&M Specialists to do our job better.
Teaching high school
I started my career teaching home economics, health and social science in Tasmanian district high schools for two years, but found I enjoyed the kids, the social engagement, and the learning far more than The System. Next, I coordinated an after school child-care program and studied Pastoral Care through the Uniting Church.
Discovering O&M
I tripped over the O&M profession in Hobart, and Garry and I moved to Melbourne in 1992 where I completed a one-year intensive professional preparation program at La Trobe University.
I began working as an O&M specialist at Guide Dogs Victoria in 1993, delivering intensive client training programs in the client residence, offering itinerant client services in metro Melbourne, and making monthly regional visits to work with clients in and around Bendigo, Echuca and Shepparton. I loved the freedom to engage in person-centred practice, and to work with clients when, where, and how it suited them to learn. My work with Guide Dogs Victoria gave me the opportunity to gain more expertise in:
- Acquired brain injury and neurological vision conditions
- Children’s O&M
- Multiple disabilities and low vision/blindness, including CVI (cortical/cerebral vision impairment)
Mothering
Mothering has been my best professional development. When my daughters were tiny, we spent three years in Devonport, Tasmania (1998-2000). We had wonderful support from grandparents while I worked part time for Guide Dogs Tasmania along the NW Coast. During this time, I trained to become a tutor in Adult Literacy and Basic Education. I also started teaching young people to drive. I do love working with learners towards the Aha! moment.
Teaching at university
In 2001, I returned to work as an O&M specialist at Guide Dogs Victoria (GDV). Completing a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment in 2006 taught me about the ways that universities and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector come together in the Australian Qualifications Framework. Then I had the opportunity to help shape the new generation of O&M Specialists. I worked with GDV colleagues to write curriculum and deliver a Graduate Diploma in O&M at La Trobe University between 2008-2011.
Research
Lecture preparation for the La Trobe program ignited my interest in research. I completed a Master of Education at Monash University in 2011, then a PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2016.
My Masters minor thesis took me into the world of motorised mobility scooter travel with low vision. I realised the need for functional vision measures that can be used in ordinary O&M assessment, with anyone of any age, anywhere in the world, without pre-determining who is disabled.
My PhD involved teaming up with vision professionals from Bionic Vision Australia to evaluate the functional outcomes of a bionic eye prototype. The VROOM and OMO functional assessment tools were the pearl from this project. These two tools can be used in ordinary O&M assessment to measure a client’s functional vision and mobility, each giving a score out of 50.
Subsequent research projects involved validating the VROOM and OMO tools with a cohort of guide dog handlers (N=51), developing and testing an assessment tool to evaluate guide dog harnesses, and co-designing with blind end-users a battery of innovative O&M tasks that can be used to evaluate assistive technology.
Post-PhD
Since 2016, I have taught many O&M professionals to use the VROOM and OMO tools through in-person and online workshops, both in Australia and internationally. In 2020, I launched my podcast, RO&Ming with Lil to extend this learning opportunity and conversation to more O&M Specialists.
Since teaching at La Trobe, I have worked with other O&M providers in Australia and New Zealand to write and/or teach O&M curriculum to trainee O&M professionals. This has involved collaboration with Guide Dogs Queensland, Blind Low Vision New Zealand, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT and the University of NSW.
Chairing the O&M Standards Committee for the O&M Association of Australasia (OMAA) from 2008-2021 gave me the opportunity to promote international standards for the O&M profession in Australia and New Zealand, working closely with the ACVREP COMS Subject Matter Expert Committee (USA) from 2015.
In March 2025, the OMAA received formal acknowledgement that the O&M profession is recognised by the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme in Australia) as a registered provider of capacity-building services, and the OMAA sets the standards for the O&M profession. The OMAA has determined that to be a ROMSA (Registered O&M Specialist in Australasia), an O&M professional needs to be a COMS (internationally Certified O&M Specialist with the ACVREP) and a current member of the OMAA (to stay connected with the local profession and support professional development).
I continue to peer-review and publish O&M research.