[Blind-international-students] [acb-chat] Sport for the blind, quite important but, how accessible it is?

Thu Apr 11 07:11:09 UTC 2013

Hi Bob, thank you so much for your positive participation. Well I agree with you to some extent, it's a long and intensive battle to win. But it really deserves such strive and empowerment to guarantee having accessible exercising equipments, it's the price to avoid health crisis. Well in regards to excersising privately at home, oh how tedious!
You could possibly exercise at home, but it's kinda boring though. It doesn't have this broad excitement, social interaction and the competitive disposition you're involved in at the Gym. It's a sufficient benefit to get out of home for such major  exercising activities once  a day. I am not who I used to be. I am now more active, I get up early with freshly energized mind, and with more salubrious body. I think that promoting accessible sports for the blind is even more important than focusing on accessible video games etc, which increases your indolence, and it's associated with major health problems on the long term. Our health is the most precious treasure of ourselves. And, if we didn't critically take care of it, we will emphatically be subjected to negative health effects when we get ilder. The only way to significantly prevent that, is just to basicly pay more attention to what strengthens your body. Please, I advise everyone to just try registering a near Gym. Trust me, it's not that quite long to feel the difference. Thanks for all of those who excessively and constantly advise me to take care of my health, including my friends and parents, thanks folks, have a pleasant time.      

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bob Hachey 
  To: Mostafa Al'mahdy ; General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide range of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list. 
  Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2013 7:01 AM
  Subject: Re: [acb-chat] Sport for the blind, quite important but,how accessible it is?

  Hi Mostafa,
  Very good post.
  IT is time, or maybe past time for ACB to put more into the issue of accessible exercise equipment. While exercise equipment for the home can be had that does not depend upon a digital computer, much of what's out there in gyms does rely on such computers and, like other devices such as Smart phones and video devices, we have the right to access these devices via nonvisual means. 
  That means another major fight and, if we win, probably a long drawn out period of implementation.
  Frankly, I feel extremely frustrated that we need laws to gain access that all others take for granted. The technology exists to make these and other devices including most consumer electronics accessible, but the powers that be who decide upon such things seem to do the right thing only when forced by law to do so and then implementation is usually painfully slow. 
  I know that Great Britain is way ahead of us when it comes to accessible video equipment. I wonder how they fare when it comes to exercise equipment and other consumer electronics? 
  Bob Hachey 

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Mostafa Al'mahdy 
    To: "Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@mail2.acb.org 
    Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 12:02 PM
    Subject: [acb-chat] Sport for the blind, quite important but,how accessible it is?

    Hello. As all we know, sport is an active diversion that demands physical exertion, it involves strenuous physical efforts to win a competition. It's a major activity that everyone of us should be involved in on a regular basis. Emphatically, blind people are not any different from anyone else. Thus, sports and athletic activities are essentially mandatory for blind people in particular, due to the fact that we are less active in everyday life in comparison to sighted counterparts. We don't drive for instance, and we don't spend all of our errands quite independently. We ordinarily   accompany a sighted friend, or family member to assist us, or perhaps it's being done on our behalf. Well recently, a popular blind musician from Egypt passed away due to severe health problems, and heart diseases. As blind people, we spend a long time, just lounging, either on the computer, on the piano, or whatever that interests you individually. Furthermore, as blind people, we love to eat and to taste delicious food, haha. I was a bit overweight, and I felt that my health could be subjected to major threats if I continued this way. So I decided to register in a Gymnasium to avoid any of that. Well since I started to go to the Gym on a daily basis, I happilly became quite active, less lazy, and mentally positive. At the Gym, and in a quite short period of time, I made many friends, it's infact a great place to exercise, interact and socialize. Now the question is, how accessible the Gym is? How accessible these Athletic facilities are? Well usually, the Gym is largely equipped with various athletic devices and facilities. But for the most part, you can't use them independently. You will frequently demand the sighted assistance of your coach or one of your friends at the Gym to slightly adjust the device you exercise on, either to decrease or increase the speed or the resistance of some device. That absolutely requires sighted interference. So for instance, when I use the treadmill, the coach configures it for me, and he tells me, it's now programmed for you to run 15 minutes straight, or whatever the time was. During my treadmill session, I can't observe or do the following:
    1; The speed that this treadmill was set to run on, unless someone tells me about it.
    2; How many mile it runs per minute.
    3; How many fats and calories I lose per minute.
    4; How fast my heartbeats are?
    5; How long is left to go on that particular program I am running on.
    6; I can't adjust the treadmill timer on my own.
    Of course, all of these important information and even more are displayed on the treadmill front screen. These information are visually recognized, and any sighted trainee can easily adjust and control that as he exercises. I think this subject is quite important to be significantly considered on a panel of critical discussions. It's timely for our adaptive technology to incredibly reflect its usability, and to enormously reutilize this athletic world for us. I look forward to your positive participations, thank you, have a pleasant time. Mostafa.     

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