Speakers
Dr. Robert Wall Emerson
JVIB Editor-In-Chief
After many years working as an orientation and mobility instructor and vision teacher, in 1999, Dr. Wall Emerson earned his doctoral degree in education and human development, with a specialization in orientation and mobility, from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. From 2000 to 2004, he held the position of research assistant professor at Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, Vanderbilt University. In 2004, he moved to Western Michigan University, where he currently works as a professor in the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies.
As a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) and a teacher of students with visual impairments, Dr. Wall Emerson has conducted blindness-related research for over 25 years. His areas of interest include accessibility of roundabouts and channelized right-turn lanes, traffic gap perception and decision to cross, accessible pedestrian signals, acoustics in blind navigation, assistive technology for navigation, availability of braille transcribers, biomechanics of long cane use, braille literacy, braille production methodology and systems, cortical visual impairment, description of mathematics images for students who are blind, the effect of hybrid or quiet vehicles on performing orientation and mobility tasks, the effect of slope on veering, surface guidance materials for people who are blind, and technology for description of visual media for students with visual impairments. He has published over 85 peer-reviewed articles and nine book chapters, and he is an editor for the fourth edition of the Foundations of O&M textbook. Notably, two of his Statistical Sidebar contributions are among the most downloaded items published in the pages of JVIB.
Dr. Sarahelizabeth Baguhn
AFB Research Specialist
Sarahelizabeth Baguhn, Ph.D. serves as a Research Specialist on AFB’s Public Policy and Research team since joining in June 2022. She is responsible for contributing to research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and reporting.
Prior to her role at AFB, Dr. Baguhn started her career in Special Education in Wisconsin before transitioning to teaching blindness and low vision skills as a TVI/COMS. She then spent five years at Western Michigan University, focusing on teaching preservice professionals in their TVI, VRT, O&M, and AT blindness and low vision studies programs. She has published peer-reviewed research articles on topics of echoidentification and assessments and has given over 20 presentations at vision conferences in the USA and abroad. Notably, she has presented at conferences such as the International Mobility Conference and the AER International Conference. Dr. Baguhn also serves on the board of directors for ACVREP, the board of directors for the Michigan Blind Athletic Association, on the subject matter expert committee for Assistive Technology with ACVREP, as well as the advisory council for Audio Description.
Dr. Baguhn earned her doctorate from Western Michigan University in 2021, where she studied interdisciplinary health sciences and worked to develop a valid and reliable assessment for young children’s orientation and mobility skills. Her research focused on testing blind children’s orientation and mobility skills. She holds a master's in Orientation and Mobility for Children from Western Michigan University and a bachelor’s in Special Education from the University of Wisconsin. Her current research interest includes barriers faced by workers who are blind or have low vision and accessibility of digital information.
