[Sportsandrec] Accessible equipment for blind athletes

[Gaston Bedard]

Hello Santi

I'm a deaf blind runner who runs with sighted guides.
I'm from Aylmer Qc, Canada.

I know exactly where you're coming from, as I'd also like to have accessible timing devices.
My guides wear Garmin GPS watches, they provide me with my splits and times while we're on the run.

In addition to being totally blind, I'm also totally deaf, when I remove my 2 hearing aids.

We communicate with hand signals, and finger spelling when we're running.

Yes, It would be nice to have accessible electronic devices to enhance our workouts.

I would also like to know how you run with your guides.

Gaston

-----Original Message-----
From: SportsandRec [mailto:sportsandrec-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Santiago Velasquez via SportsandRec
Sent: July-30-16 5:06 AM
To: SportsandRec
Cc: Santiago Velasquez
Subject: [Sportsandrec] Accessible equipment for blind athletes

Good Day to you all. My name is Santiago Velasquez and I live in Australia.

I enjoy participating on sporting activities, but there are some things that I have not been able to find the answers for online.

I run with a guide, and I also swim.

Some of you might be aware of devices like the Garmin forerunner 920 or the Garmin Fenix. These are GPS watches design for sports people in mind.

These and other similar devices are able to present great statistics to the user to help with their workout. However, as far as I am concerned, they are not accessible.

Are there any devices out there that are as capable and reliable as the watches mentioned above that are accessible?

Some of the stats that are provided by those products are:
Heart rate monitoring
Speed, distance and time
Ground contact (vertical oscillations)
lap count for Swimming
And much much more.

I would like a device that I am  able to access while I am working out (running, tandem biking or swimming) if it exist. 

To make the selection even smaller, it has to be a device that is able to provide auditory feedback like a screen reader software since my visual acuity is not great.

I know the apple watch has Voice Over, but I cannot swim with it.

I thought of the Casio WXD-f10 smart android Wear watch, but I haven’t been able to find much about if android Wear has screen reader abilities.

I am also planning to upgrade my Chest strap Heart rate monitor, so something that is able to interact with a Chest strap would be nice.

Sorry for such a lengthy email, but I would like to gather better stats so that I can improve my workouts.

Thanks for everything 

Kind regards 
Santi
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