[Sportsandrec] Adapting Sports for the Blind

[Peter Donahue]

Hello Karen and listers,

    The only thing I'll say about it all is that my personal experience 
playing conventional baseball with the adaptations made for blind players 
prior to the development of beep baseball flies directly in the face of 
everything that has been said. We had our share of injuries but never 
received bad press over it. I went to the Oak Hill and the Perkins Schools 
for the Blind. There we played all sports according to the rules for sighted 
players with only the adaptations necessary to accommodate byline players. 
Some of these included running lines to guide blind track runners who chose 
to use them, pitching baseballs on the bounce from the normal distance, 
wrestling matches starting from a standing position with both opponents 
touching fingers, metronomes placed on basketball hoops and archery targets 
so blind players knew where they were, the use of bowling alley rails to 
help blind bowlers line up to throw the ball, inclines to allow 
wheelchair-bound blind persons to bowl, I think you get the idea. Balloons 
were also placed on the archery targets so the participant knew when they 
hit it. They popped when struck by the arrows. And all of this before I 
found the National Federation of the Blind.

    Thus the comments I've made on this subject are deeply rooted in my own 
experience. Perhaps now It's easier to understand my shock and disgust when 
this thread began and the concerns coming out of it. While I'm still not big 
on schools for the blind for totally unrelated reasons I'm relieve to know 
that they did some things right. Now to finish up a Web Site. Happy new year 
from Mary and myself.

Peter Donahue