Paratriathlon continues to break down barriers, with Sunday’s Accenture USA Triathlon Paratriathlon National Championships attracting 53 athletes - the most ever at a paratriathlon event worldwide.

Every athlete completing the course under 4 hours qualified for the World Championships in Australia later this season.

The sport of partriathlon, formerly referred to as physically challenged triathlon, is striving to be on the world stage by the 2016 Olympic Games. What the International Paralympic Committee is looking for in a potential Paralympic sport, according to USAT Paratriathlon Committee Chair Jon Beeson, is the three R’s - records, results and races. Sunday’s event had a little bit of everything.

“These are athletes who want to win in the worst way,” Beeson said. “They’re not finishers. They’re not participants. They’re battling it out.”

Aaron Scheidies, a visually impaired athlete, continues to show that he is not only at the top of his class in paratriathlon, but also is competitive with the top able-bodied athletes in the sport. Scheidies won his class with a time of 2 hours, 2 minutes, 15 seconds, in the 1.5 swim, 40k bike and 10k run event that consisted of a swim in the Hudson River, biking on Westside Highway and running through Central Park. Scheidies holds the paratriathlon world record at 1:58:26….(continued)

Source for complete article: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/pace-of-chicago/2009/07/paratriathletes-shine-at-national-championship.html

Louise Brown, 91, has read up to a dozen books a week since 1946 without incurring a single fine for late returns.

She borrows mainly large print books because she is partially sighted, and has almost worked her way through her local library’s entire stock.
Library staff in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, say the pensioner’s rapacious reading habits over 60 years could earn her a place in the record books.

Mrs Brown, a widow, said: “My parents were great readers and I’ve always loved books. I started reading when I was five and have never stopped. I like anything I can get my hands on.”

She said her favourite genres are family sagas, historical novels and war stories, but added: “I also like Mills and Boon for light reading at night.”

She said she had read too many books to have a favourite or top five, but if she had to choose a preferred genre it would be family sagas or historical novels.

Louise Pride, her daughter, said: “She has aids to help her sight and usually borrows large print books. But the trouble is she has read nearly all of them in the local library. She still finds time to ready a newspaper every day and to watch TV.”

Welsh-born Mrs Brown joined a library in Castle Douglas, near Stranraer, in 1946 when she moved there after getting married.

Seven years ago she moved to Stranraer to live with her daughter and has been regularly borrowing books from the library ever since.

Over the past six decades she has borrowed at least six books every week throughout each year and has recently increased that to about 12 every seven days.

Janice Goldie, of Dumfries and Galloway Libraries, said: “We are amazed at Mrs Brown’s achievements. When she first joined the library service she was allowed to borrow six books a week. This has now risen to 12 and she always takes her full quota.

“Although she has borrowed nearly 25,000 books, she has never once had to pay an overdue charge.The staff at Stranraer Library think she’s a remarkable lady and look forward to her weekly visits. They would like to know if anyone can beat her reading record.”

Source for complete article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5932159/Britains-most-avid-reader-91-has-borrowed-25000-library-books.html

MVP Kenny Johar was recently awarded the Microsoft MVP Award, for his contributions towards Internet Explorer. He has carved out a successful IT career by helping to make technology, more accessible to Australia’s visually impaired. News of his Award, was also picked up by The Australian newspaper and you can read an excerpt of the interview below.

Kenny was diagnosed with problems to his eyesight during the final years of high school, and had intended to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor. The news that he had retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative sight condition, came as a crushing blow.

“It’s like a domino effect,” he said. “When I started there were lots of obstacles for people with vision impairment to get into the IT industry, and I take a huge sense of achievement from the fact I am opening a floodgate for others to follow”.

“I had strong aspirations to be a neurologist,” he recalled. “I was very interested in the human brain, and then I learned that no matter how hard I worked I was never going to be able to get there, so I had to change the direction of my career”.

Everything changed when he got a laptop computer with a screen reader that allowed the information in programs and on web pages to be read aloud to him.

“Suddenly the world opened up again for me,” he said. “To have something come into my life and give me such a strong ray of hope for the future made me realise how powerful a tool technology was”.

Kenny is now helping to roll out a new software package that will assist vision-impaired people to go online. He remains optimistic that the IT industry will offer more opportunities to blind people. “It’s not about a disability, it’s about your attitude, and I think for people who come after me it’s not going to be a big deal; it won’t be a taboo anymore”.

You can read Kenny’s full interview with The Australian here.

Source for complete article: http://blogs.msdn.com/mvpawardprogram/archive/2009/07/28/australia-recognises-its-first-visually-impaired-mvp.aspx

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Blind high schoolers from across the country this week will build an environmentally friendly model home, launch weather balloons or create robots. And some will even drive a car!

The University of Maryland is hosting nearly 200 blind or low-vision high school students to try their hand at careers never thought possible for them: engineering, architecture, robotics and science. The National Federation of the Blind is holding its biennial Youth Slam here at the suggestion of Leigh Abts, a research associate professor in the College of Education with a longtime interest in opening science, technology, engineering and math fields to people with visual impairments.

“We’ve done some research and found that a lot of blind high school students go into college with a notion of what they are going to major in, but it’s not usually their choice,” said Karen Zakhnini, education project manager with the federation’s Jernigan Institute. A lot of times and their teachers or their guidance counselors or their parents have told them, “This would be good for you because you can actually do this.”

She said this program helps young people understand what they can do and decide if it’s what they want to do. As part of the weeklong event, college students and working professionals serve as living examples.

Nathan Redman, a rising high school senior from Nebraska, didn’t know what to expect. In the universal language of teenagers, though, he sums up what many of them feel on the first day: “It’s going to be awesome.”

On Monday, he and his peers flicked their canes open to navigate an unfamiliar, large campus to attend different sessions based on their interests. Nathan worked on designs for a green model home using wood blocks, flexible wax tubes and paper with raised grids….

Source for complete article: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/release.cfm?ArticleID=1934

HIGH POINT – Four softball teams composed of visually impaired players from Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Spartanburg were in the Triad Saturday for their season championship.

“Beep Ball is a sport that – it’s something that the blind can do and be challenged in a sport equally,” Charlotte Hornets player Barney Fleming said.

The premise is much like traditional softball, but the outfielders work from seven zones.

“You have two sighted people out in the field and once the ball is hit out into the field, the two sighted people call the zone and the blind will the ball and pick it up before visually impaired person reaches the base,” Fleming said.

And because there can be varying degrees of blindness, each player wears a blindfold to keep things on an even playing field.

“It’s not a disability; it’s an inconvenience to be blind. All of our people have good brains, good hands, good legs, good reflexes, they can do anything that they need to do to play ball except see,” NC/SC Beep Ball Commissioner Cookie Jones-Peele said.

The game in High Point Saturday was the league’s season championship. The Raleigh Rockets hit their way to a win over the Charlotte Hornets.

“It was designed to get blind people from sitting on the couch doing nothing, thinking that they would like to be athletes, to get them to actually come out and realize they can be,” Jones-Peele said.

And she hopes they’ll get the chance to realize that in California. That’s where players from each team in the league will represent the Carolinas at the Beep Ball World Series next week.

Source for complete article(s): http://news14.com/Default.aspx?ArID=612436 & http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=127875&catid=57

Past program participant and current coach Travis Sherrill considered the ones taking part in this summer’s First Tee of Lake Norman’s Golf Clinic for the Visually Impaired at an advantage.

“You’re lucky,” noted Sherrill, of Mooresville, to as many of the golfers attending the mid-morning into early-afternoon session at the Mooresville Municipal Golf Course that could hear him. “You don’t have to see the ball to hit it. That’s great.”

Sherrill was one of the number of coaches and other volunteers on hand to help provide guidance to those participating in the affair that is part of the local-based First Tee program’s regular calendar of events.

“These kids really look forward to it,” beamed Michael Abate, the youth-oriented organization’s Director of Golf. “They’re excited about being here. We weren’t about to let a little rain spoil it for them. It’s really a joy and a pleasure to watch them all participate.”

Rain tried its best, with no avail, to put a damper on the scheduled affair. Some surrounding areas received nearly two inches of rain during an early morning storm system. But only a slight cloud cover and even a few streaks of sunshine were in place during the four-hour long gathering.

A number of visually impaired participants help make the affair complete, with those on hand primarily representing Camp Dogwood. Staff members there as well as those from the host MMGC along with a handful of first Tee of Lake Norman youth all served as volunteer coaches and supporters while also providing some helpful golfing tips.

The crowd spent most of the morning session attending various areas of skills related to the game of golf. In groups, golfers participated in putting, chipping, full swing and driving drills all designed to get a better feel for the game.

After spending a designated amount of time as each of the sites, they took turns at the locations in order to get a handle on all the aspects of the game.

After lunch that was provided to the field, the afternoon session was filled with games and contests that enabled all campers to put to use what they had learned during the morning sessions.

Source for complete article: http://www2.mooresvilletribune.com/content/2009/jul/24/first-tee-lake-norman-hosts-golf-clinic-visually-i/

Join Guggenheim Museum educators Georgia Krantz, Guthrie Nutter, and Ellen Edelman for a tour, discussion, and private reception. Separate programs are presented through Verbal Imaging, touch, and American Sign Language (ASL).

Mon, Aug 3, 6–8 pm: Learning By Doing Discussion and Workshop

Free, space is limited, advance RSVP required
RSVP by Tue, July 28: 212 360 4355 or access@guggenheim.org

*Priority admission to ASL tours is provided to the deaf community. ASL students will be notified two days before the program if space is available.

Public programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Source for complete article and more information: http://is.gd/1Je2g

BLACKSBURG, Va., July 15, 2009 — A student team in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering is providing the blind with an opportunity many never thought possible: The opportunity to drive.

A retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy developed by the Blind Driver Challenge team from Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory uses laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and a host of other innovative, cutting-edge technology to guide blind drivers as they steer, brake, and accelerate. Although in the early testing stage, the National Federation of the Blind — which spurred the project — considers the vehicle a major breakthrough for independent living of the visually impaired.

“It was great!” said Wes Majerus, of Baltimore, the first blind person to drive the buggy on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus earlier this summer. Majerus is an access technology specialist with the National Federation of the Blind’s Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, a research and training institute dedicated to developing technologies and services to help the blind achieve independence.

Majerus called his drive a liberating experience, adding that he drove before on Nebraska farm roads with his father as a guide in the passenger seat….

Source for complete article: http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2009&itemno=542

With more than 20 million Americans experiencing significant vision loss, dealing with the disability can result in severe hardships in daily life. But if you take a look into the only sports camp in Alaska designed for blind and visually impaired kids, you’ll see some truly inspiring feats where although there is sight loss, the actual vision is still greater than ever.

When talking about confidence, Helen Keller said it best when she said, “Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” And when you look at the kids of Camp Abilities that’s exactly what they are doing. With every day a challenge in being vision impaired, at Camp Abilities, kids get the chance to be just like everyone else. “There are sports camps all over for every kid so there is no reason, not to have sports camp for a child who’s blind or visually impaired,” said Jenna Sticken, who is a counselor at Camp Abilities.

The camp has adapted sports like track and field, biking, and beep baseball, which gives campers the chance to be physically active while creating an environment of self-esteem and confidence. “We did the running, the beep baseball, go ball and swimming, and I really like it,” said Mindy Baldwin, who is a Camp Abilities camper. “Its so much fun to be able to work with them and see their gains every year,” said Sticken. Making gains is exactly what camp veteran Kelsey Tallant is all about, who despite being diagnosed with glaucoma at an early age is a very determined young adult. “When I started school, like in the 1st grade when I started realizing stuff, and at first it was no big deal, and then I started realizing it and then got to be a big deal, then I realized, hey, I’m blind it doesn’t matter, I’m different its cool.”

Kelsey only has sight in one prosthetic eye, but you can’t tell based on her attitude towards life and everyone else. “I was once like their age, and I know how they feel and I’m a couple years older than them and if I have a positive attitude, then they’ll have a positive attitude and they’ll look at it like its no big deal,” said Kelsey.

From running, to even playing baseball, being visually impaired can be a day-to-day challenge. But if you use the kids of Camp Abilities as an example, there is nothing holding them back. “We keep a positive environment, everybody is upbeat, everybody succeeds in something, it doesn’t matter if you only bike one lap or if you only bike 14 laps you have made gains,” said Sticken. “It’s one of our major focuses and its so much fun, this is the most exciting camp to see what these kids can do,” said Kathy Trautman, of the Girdwood Lions Club.

You don’t have to look far to see the results, as these kids are proof, that impairments or no impairments, anything is possible. “Maybe try to make it to the Olympics, I don’t know,” said Kelsey. “You are gaining your own confidence, you can do it yourself, you don’t need somebody else to do it,” said Sticken. Funding for Camp Abilities is entirely from donations in which the Lions Club foundation plays a role. For more information about how you can help continue an important need in Alaska please go to our links page.

Source for complete article: http://www.ktva.com/ci_12861886

BURLINGTON, ON–(Marketwire - July 15, 2009) - The 12for12k Challenge, a social media-driven charitable effort, has partnered with Eye Care For Kids during the month of July. The purpose is to raise funds for visually impaired youth from poor and low-income families to get the treatment they need. By harnessing the power of social media to influence positive change, 12for12k and Eye Care For Kids hope to raise more than $12,000 to help treat kids in need across the state of Utah, including rural areas and Native American reservations.

“When a child’s vision is impaired, it affects more than just their eyes; it affects their learning, confidence and futures. What we take for granted thousands never know because of their economic situations, which is why we are thrilled to dedicate our efforts this month to helping Eye Care For Kids make sight a reality for children in need,” said Danny Brown, founder of 12for12k.

According to state statistics, as many as 65,000 kids currently need the services that Eye Care For Kids provide. Not only can this help with education and learning difficulties, it can prevent more serious long-term damage as well.

“Sight is such a critical component to education and life experience, especially for a child,” said Joseph Carbone, Founder and President of Eye Care For Kids. “Social media is arguably one of the fastest and most influential forms of influence in our world today, and we are confident that 12for12k’s efforts will help raise awareness of this important drive to bring sight to children in need.”

The 12for12k Challenge works to raise $12,000 per charity for 12 different charities in 2009 by getting 1,200 people to donate just $10 each to a different charity each month. During the month of July, 12for12k will dispatch messages through its network of thousands, leveraging social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, blogs and others. In addition, other events will take place including Masquertweet, a special charity live event in New York. For more information, please contact Danny Brown at Danny@12for12k.org or visit Danny@12for12k.org or visit www.12for12k.org.

Source for complete article: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/The-12For12K-Challenge-1017762.html