Blindness doesn’t mean darkness or not seeing things at all. It means see the things around or to comprehend the concepts in a different way. This different way has some challenges for people with blindness or people with visual impairment. Some of them may face some problems in their day to day lives. There is a wrong assumption among community which people who are dealing with blindness, do not have the ability to do their everyday works or they cannot live a normal life. But this assumption is not true. They can have a normal life with some challenges.

Blindness challenges

Navigating new places

People with blindness have an organized and permanent structure for their home appliances and they are accustomed to it. So, if you are their guests, never move anything without their permission. They know the streets, bridges, stores and other places in neighborhood. But the real challenge for them is the time, when they are facing a new place because they have no idea of the environment.

Opening heavily wrapped products

Unpacking some products may have a frustrating process for no sight people. Heavily wrapped goods, bottles, unpacking some boxes and many other products may be difficult to open.

Liquids in dishes

If a person with blindness forget to guess the amount of the cup, glasses or any other dishes, they may end up with liquid all over the counter or on the ground. They must use their fingers to indicate the amount of the dish or liquid.

Unusable internet sections

There is not enough accessibility system on Internet for people with no sight. They need a system to make the screen into the audio messages. This technology is not very accessible.

Handling cash

Sometime paper printed cashes may confusing to guess when there is some of them on the pocket and you have vision impairment or blindness. It great to use note checkers to help recognize the cashes.

Arranging clothes

Another challenge for people with blindness is to arranging clothes. Sometimes recognizing their own clothes depending on the shape and texture is hard. Pairing socks or other paired clothes is a real challenge because of their colors for a person with no sight.

The concept of color for people with blindness

Birth vision loss or no sight people have no conception about colors. It’s an abstract concept which people around must teach them with tangible experience. For example, using water to teach blue, or to use fire to teach red, snow as white, mud as brown is a good way.

Blindness vs. visual impairment!

Blindness and sport challenges

As mentioned before, people with blindness, like many other people, can do many routine things but in different ways. They can read by the brail signs or audio technology. They can sing. They can write. Even they can play various sports. Some of the games which are suitable for people with blindness or people with visual impairment are:

 Athletics, Boccia, Chess, Football, Judo, Ninepin Bowling, Powerlifting, Shooting, Showdown, Swimming, Tenpin Bowling, Torball, Goalball, Golf, Tandem Cycling, Blind Tennis, Polybat, Rowing, Archery, Mountaineering, etc.

The point is that doing sport is easy, but facing some challenges in doing sports is hard for people with blindness. Some of the problems are as follow:

Ability to diagnose the distances in the playground

They must realize and visualize the size of the playground. Athletes also should find their location in the field according to the size of the court. They should know if they are close to the midfield or the sidelines.

Recognizing teammates in team games

It’s a big challenge to recognize teammates and their locations in a playground. It’s also essential to guess their distance with teammates.

Moving and running safely

It’s essential to move and run safely in the playground with no colliding with other players. People with blindness should know how to keep themselves and other players safe while in the field.

Focusing on the ball

Those people with blindness that play the games, which are the blind sports, should be focused on the direction of the ball. They should be able to guess whether the ball is coming or going or where the location is. They should recognize the direction and location of the ball.

The challenges are more than what is mentioned here. No matter how many problems are in the way, if someone wants to be an athlete or enjoy what is he or she doing, challenges will be accepted.