Students with no functional vision

Students with no functional vision will require different levels of support inclusive of but not exclusive to; confidence, perseverance, experience, when the student or athlete lost their vision and their ability to track an audible cue. For the most effective adaptations for each student it is always best to contact the SA School for Vision Impaired and speak to either your student's advisory teacher or the physical education teacher, Andrew Whisson.

It is very easy to allow students without vision to avoid involvement in the competitive nature of the PE lesson. However, students without vision are exactly this, students who are unable to see.  This does not mean that they are no longer competitive, or interested in sport, and by depriving them of the opportunity to be involved with their peers is inequitable and noninclusive.

There are many ways that mainstream PE can be adapted for the students without functional vision as seen below.

One of the most common practices in PE is for teachers to demonstrate movements to the whole class with comments like "move your arms across like this" or "move your leg like this". While students without a vision impairment are able to follow these instructions it does act as a barrier for students with a vision impairment to be involved in the lessons. Ensuring that the instructions are verbally explicit is vital for full involvement in physical education lessons. Often utilising the whole-part-whole pedagogy will allow the instructions and movements to be broken down individually for the students.  The simple action of bounce passing a basketball can be explained explicitly as follows:

"Hold the basketball to your chest with both hands between the basketball and your chest with your palms facing the basketball so you are able to maintain control.  Raise your elbows so they are parallel to the ground and push the ball towards the ground between yourself and your partner, ensuring that you follow through so the back of your hands end up facing each other and your fingers and arms are pointing towards the ground between yourself and your target."

It would then be possible to include more steps with the bounce pass, including "squaring" off to the target first and involving a step towards the target, again ensuring that each step is explained explicitly.

By explicitly explaining this movement students with vision impairment are able to follow each step.  It is still useful to visually model the movement, for yourself and those students who are able to follow visually, but ensuring explicit explanation means that each lesson and movement is inclusive for all students.

There are times where it may be necessary to support a student or athlete with the physical movements required for the skill being taught.  This hand over hand instruction can allow a teacher or coach to support a student to understand the gross or fine muscle movements required for a skill and can support students to move the skills into their muscle memory and support faster progression out of the cognitive stage of learning and support the progression into the associative or autonomous stages. While hand over hand support can be an effective pedagogical practice it is vital that before this is introduced that the teacher or coach has the permission of the student or athlete before manually handling the student. A simple "Do you mind if I show you the movement?" can be the difference between student refusal through embarrassment or frustration. 

Each sport and game is different and requires teachers to understand what they would like to observe from the students. There is no simple one rule or equipment change that will make every sport accessible to athletes or students with a vision impairment. The most common mistake observed when involving a student with a vision impairment is to expect them to play with mainstream sports by simply giving them a chime ball. However, often simple rule changes can allow all students to be safely involved in fast paced and enjoyable games and sports.

Invasion games and sports can be daunting when including students or athletes with a vision impairment, however, enforcing defenders to communicate their position or intent to defend with a simple "voy" (mine in Portuguese) allows for continued communication with their peers and teammates in English and a makes the position of defenders clear for the athlete with a vision impairment.

Sports like basketball, netball or korfball are hard to play with audible balls as they often lose their touch and bounce from the bells and adapted bladders.  This reduces the predictability of the ball, and makes the already difficult task of dribbling even harder.  However, enforcing bounce passes allows students to hear the ball coming whilst simultaneously reducing the fear that the ball will hit them in the face without warning.

Net sports can also be difficult to track the fast moving ball through the three dimensional plane.  By allowing for an additional bounce or bounces the student or athlete with vision impairment is far more likely to track and return or pass the ball as there is now an additional audible cue and the possibility of the ball slowing down before they have to interact with it.

It is important to acknowledge that some sports are harder for a student with a vision impairment, even simple sports such as running require some adaptations or support for some students (see below). However, there are very few sports that cannot be adapted to support the involvement of all students including those with vision impairment. For explicit ideas on how this can be done speak to your advisory teacher or Andrew Whisson (PE teacher at SASVI) for ideas that are unique for your student or athlete.

A simple way to support a student or athlete with a vision impairment achieve some success is by increasing the surface area or the size of the equipment being used.  Larger or adapted equipment can be more forgiving and allow students or athletes to have greater success.  Sports like tennis will often produce rackets with a slightly larger head and therefore a larger sweet spot for striking the ball, while this reduces the control over placement, it allows athletes to be less accurate with their swing and still achieve some success.  Learning to track a larger ball can support students with their understanding of ball movement and allow the ball to be gradually reduced in size as the student has more success. Simply changing the movement can also support students achieve greater success.  Below are photographs of a traditional vertical bat stroke in cricket next to the horizontal sweep shot.  This changes the hitting zone from roughly 11cm to over 50cm allowing the success rate to be much higher.

In some cases it can be just as important to decrease the length of objects to reduce the distance a student has to work over to connect with or control a ball. When working out if the equipment should be larger or smaller to support the student consider if the length is going to support the student to increase the surface area or to simply make the hitting point or control point further away. By asking as student to use a bat or stick to work with a ball we are lengthening their arm and asking them to still be aware of the end of the equipment.  Although not easy for any student at first, it is even harder when the visual input is impaired or nonexistent and by simply making the control point further away we are relying on the student or athlete to have a greater spatial awareness than at a reduced distance.

Some equipment can be modified to ensure that it is shorter and reduces the length between the hands and the body or eyes. Below are some simple foam polo sticks that can be used in either hockey or T-ball, one has had it's handle shortened in order to maintain the increased surface area of the hitting zone while shortening the distance from the student or athlete. Although the power produced from the stick on the left will be greater, the control and accuracy will be far less than the one on the right.

While not all students and athletes with vision impairment require audible balls, athletes without functional vision do require some form of audible output in order to track the moving ball. Some sports and balls automatically make enough noise to be tracked by an athlete without functional vision, however, most sports require specialised equipment. 

Audible markers allow students without functional vision to orientate towards a target or object of significance and to remove the visual orientation that their sighted peers use during a sport or game. In doing so it allows students with vision impairment to move faster and with confidence in the correct direction allowing their game play to be smoother and far more independent. Whilst some students are able to roughly orientate themselves towards a target even in game play to ensure inclusive practice it is important that an audible marker is placed towards those important targets.

PE lessons are exciting and enjoyable places for many students, and with the excitement and competitive nature of the games and sports it is inevitable that the noise levels increase as students cheer and support their peers, yell for attention and compete for control of the equipment.  Whilst we don't want to stifle this excitement it is important that students with no functional vision are able to be safely involved and an active participant in these lessons.  Because of this noise levels are incredibly important and can be the equivalent of turning the lights out on a sighted athlete. Whilst the sighted athlete might be able to track a ball slightly with minimal light, chances are they will get frustrated, hit and potentially injured if they attempt to play at their highest level. By increasing the noise in a PE lesson for a student or athlete tracking a ball with their ears we are preventing them from performing at their highest level. We are reducing the potential for the athlete to have those positive moments of success and enjoyment in physical activity whilst simultaneously increasing the potential for injury. Such a simple action of reducing noise in a PE lesson is a simple way that we can be inclusive of students with vision impairment. 

Tactile lines are quite simple to create and can be an invaluable tool in supporting athletes with a vision impairment become comfortable in their environment and the sporting activity involved. They can be as simple as drop down lines (rubber marking lines) used by sports like tennis to create courts on any surface, or in a more technical and permanent space a rope with court tape run over the top to create a line that is easily felt through shoes or with hands.

The tactile line acts as an orientation tool for students or athletes with vision impairment.  It can act to quickly communicate the boundaries of a court as the athlete steps on or feels the line with their hand or body.  Tactile lines also allow the athletes to move in a straight line parallel to the line, or stand with both feet on the line as shown below and know that they are perpendicular to the line and can then move directly across the playing space. Having this confidence in their environment allows for greater involvement and inclusion whilst allowing the athlete to demonstrate their best performance.

While not all students with low vision require a sighted guide, there are some situations where students with no functional vision will require this support to engage in the lesson, training or session. While the student may be confident running in a free space, tethers reduce the need for the students to move with speed and with confidence. Like hand over hand support it should always be the student or athlete's choice to accept sighted guide so permission should always be sought before any physical contact is made.

A common and less intrusive way of giving sighted guide in a sporting context is the use of a tether. A tether can be a simple as a piece of rope or ribbon and can be tied or untied depending on the preference of the student or athlete.  The pictures below show a tether tied with two loops as this was the athletes preference, however, it is possible to simply have one loop or none.

One of the most common uses of a tether is during athletics as the tether allows the sighted guide to support the student or athlete to stay in their lane and focus simply on running as fast as they can.

Both the athlete and the sighted guide should hold either end of the tether (as shown in the picture below), ensuring that they are able to release the tether should either lose their balance.

It is important when starting to allow the athlete to dictate which foot they wish to take off from and match this so there is no bumping or entanglement of legs as running. Once running the athlete with a vision impairment should dictate the speed, stride length and arm swing.  Throughout the race the sighted guide should never lead, pull or push and should be clearly behind the athlete with vision impairment as they cross the finish line.

There is a lot of equipment available for schools and clubs.  For ideas on available equipment please follow the button below to see the current list on this website.

For more information please feel free to contact the SA School for Vision Impaired.

General information

Principal: Peter Haskell

Postal Address: SA School for Vision Impaired, 1B Duncan Avenue, Park Holme, South Australia, 5011

Phone Number: 82775255

Email: dl.1014.admin@schools.sa.edu.au

PE information

PE Teacher: Andrew Whisson

Postal Address: SA School for Vision Impaired, 1B Duncan Avenue, Park Holme, South Australia, 5011

Phone Number: 82775255

Email: andrew.whisson585@schools.sa.edu.au