Did you know that Northwest Association for Blind Athletes (NWABA) isn’t just about summertime hikes and winter skiing? NWABA also provides a Sports Adaptations Video Resource Library offering instructional videos for different sports and physical activities for individuals who are blind and visually impaired as a resource to students, athletes, educators, athletes and their families, and schools. The video resource library contains over 70 educational videos (and growing) that showcase a wide variety of physical sports and recreational skills, which are broken down in order to teach each skill to students who are blind or visually impaired.
Our current videos cover skills such as fitness, locomotor, object control, basketball, racket sports, volleyball, hockey, powerlifting and PE games for all grade levels and abilities. Each series of videos breaks down the individual skills in each category to give teachers, coaches and parents the skills necessary to make this teaching accessible to their students and children. While this resource is primarily designed for teachers working with their students who have visual impairments of all ages and abilities, it has also been used by PE teachers with students who don’t have visual impairments as a resource for breaking down different skills throughout their entire classroom. Many teachers also found these resources invaluable for teaching technical skills during distance learning.
The idea for this project came about in 2014 and, through generous donations from our supporters, became a reality in 2020 with the launch of the first set of 30 videos. This program continues to grow in phases as NWABA introduced 40 new videos this year. Most videos are accompanied by an adaptations manual and tactile diagram printouts to continue to provide educators with the resources that they need.
All videos in NWABA’s Video Resource Library and accompanying resources can be found on our website as well as our YouTube channel in the Sports Adaptations Video Resource Library playlist. Because these videos are hosted online, we are able to expand our impact to more individuals who are blind and visually impaired, by providing opportunities to athletes all over the world.