Ideas to stay active with sight and hearing loss

Lily, Marketing Officer

Sensory loss is no barrier to trying new activities and meeting new people. We’ve spoken to organisers of sports and leisure activities to help you discover your new favourite hobby.

Spotlight on sport

British Blind Sport specialises in offering high-energy activities and sports to people who are visually impaired. They offer sports for participants of all fitness levels and varying degrees of sight loss. Among them, you can try:

Guided running
Modified cricket (using a larger ball)
Ice skating
Archery
Climbing
Tennis
Yoga
And many more!

One sport that is skyrocketing in popularity is goalball. This all-inclusive sport is open to people who are visually impaired and sighted, providing the latter wear eyeshades for fairness. It involves two teams of three playing with a ball containing a bell.

The ball is thrown by hand only, so no kicking is allowed. Players rely on their ear-hand coordination to throw or roll the ball into the other team’s goal. It has been running for almost 40 years and is a permanent fixture at the Paralympics!

For more information about sporting activities in your area, visit Britishblindsport.org.uk.

Experience the great outdoors

Getting out in the open provides a multi-sensory experience that everybody can enjoy. Activities such as fishing, camping and hiking are open to all, and there are even organisations to encourage these recreations.

The British Disabled Angling Association offers accessible fishing with adapted equipment, while Pitch Up offers a comprehensive list of camping sites with facilities for disabled campers.

For more information, visit Bdaa.co.uk or Pitchup.com.

Get creative

For less physically enduring activities, you can try your hand at knitting and weaving. With a reliance on a sense of touch, it is fully accessible to people who are deafblind, and can be enhanced by devices like magnifiers.

For more information, visit Visionaware.org or speak to your local community officer about activities in your area.

Our members have done it all, from travelling the globe to climbing mountains. Why not try something new?

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