Dr Lil Deverell is a mixed methods investigator who created the VROOM and OMO tools in the context of bionic vision research. These tools measure functional vision and orientation and mobility (O&M) skills during ordinary O&M assessments in every-day places. VROOM is precise enough to pick up subtle differences in light perception and fragments vision, and OMO factors in spatial cognition and mental health which have a reciprocal impact on a person’s functional mobility. These two assessment tools provide reliable data to compare with clinical measures in understanding the impact of assistive technology or other interventions on a person’s lifestyle. The tools have been validated with guide dog handlers and are now being implemented by major O&M providers, both in Australia and internationally, as baseline and outcome measures.

Dr Lil Deverell explores relationships between clinical and functional measures in orientation and mobility research. Clinical measures assume objectivity is possible and strip back the complexities of O&M to compare selected variables (e.g., speed, distance) often in controlled venues; functional measures embrace this complexity in everyday places using a constructivist co-rating approach to document comparable data. In addition to the VROOM (Vision-Related Outcomes in O&M) tool and the OMO (O&M Outcomes) tool, she also created the O&M Environmental Complexity Scale so that researchers and O&M specialists can rate any travel environment in the world from a pedestrian perspective. This scale highlights how most clinical O&M outcomes research is conducted in tame, often contrived places (levels 1-3) that bear little relationship to the unpredictable challenges that people with low vision or blindness deal with ‘in the wild’ amidst the jostle of crowds and traffic (levels 4-6). We need both clinical and functional research to understand how new assistive technologies affect a person’s performance on the day, and broader lifestyle choices.