<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19298">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=5 face=Aharoni></FONT></STRONG><STRONG><FONT
color=#0000ff size=5 face=Aharoni>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:</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff size=5 face=Aharoni>1; The speed that this
treadmill was set to run on, unless someone tells me about
it.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff size=5 face=Aharoni>2; How many mile it runs
per minute.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff size=5 face=Aharoni>3; How many fats and
calories I lose per minute.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff size=5 face=Aharoni><FONT color=#0000ff>4; How
fast my heartbeats are?</FONT></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff size=5 face=Aharoni><FONT color=#0000ff>5; How
long is left to go on that particular program I am running
on.</FONT></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=5 face=Aharoni>6; I can't adjust the treadmill timer on
my own.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff size=5 face=Aharoni><FONT color=#0000ff>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.
</FONT> </FONT></STRONG></DIV></BODY></HTML>