[Sportsandrec] Sportsandrec Digest, Vol 68, Issue 4

[Thornbury, Kelly]

The website is
www.4iiii.com

As for accessible equipment, unfortunately the current industry trend is 
towards touch-screen displays and lots of "don't get bored" applications. As 
for getting manufacturers to become more accessible, most companies just 
don't see the return on investment (ROI), and even if the equipment is 
"almost there," they aren't excited about going the extra step.

Some solutions-
1. Try asking your facility if they will allow you to place some Braille 
labels on the equipment that still uses "buttons." Many will, and some (like 
my local college) were enthusiastic about doing so and being able to be more 
accessible. Some suggestions for markings include the start and stop 
buttons, and the buttons to change the intensity (resistance on bikes and 
the speed and incline on treadmills for example). Feel free to contact me 
off list for specifically what I used.

2. Don't get caught up on the calorie data (calculated by entering things 
like your weight and age and whatnot), these metrics are not very accurate 
and are a very rough estimate at best. In my case for example, these numbers 
are nowhere near to being close, and I've had the opportunity to test this 
against clinical physiology lab equipment. You can look up your activity 
type, level, and time to get (again rough) estimates for most activities on 
a variety of websites. My personal recommendation, keep an exercise/food log 
and  check your weight (if weight loss is your goal) about once a week, and 
adjust your intake/output accordingly. If it is cardio fitness, decide on a 
couple measurable tests (1-mile, or a distance over a given time) that can 
be repeated, then measure things like HR, time to complete, or distance 
traveled to estimate if you are improving.

3. Make up your own "courses." The courses on the machines are essentially 
just changes in intensity, which you can control yourself if you mark the 
machines as in "1." Personally, I put a variety of (maybe 30) different 
workouts on my Mp3 player with workouts like "hills" or "speed work." The 
song lists  are set up for high- and low-intensity intervals, and I simply 
change the resistance/intensity of the machine at the song changes.

Someday, accessible fitness machines may become more common, but for most 
there is a way to get great workouts out of them the way they are.

Hope this helps.