Tag Archives: physical disabilities

New England Disabled Sports: Winter Activities

About New England Disabled Sports
New England DisAbled Sports is a national recognized program which provides year round adaptive sport instruction to adults and children with physical and cognitive disAbilities.

Their programs allow individuals with disabilities to enjoy a boundary-free environment, enjoy outdoor recreation with friends and family, as well as provide access to equipment and instruction that might otherwise be unavailable.

Their Mission:
The Mission of New England Disabled Sports is, through sports, to change lives affected by disabilities. Download New England Disabled Sports brochure

Their Vision:
They envision a world where disabilities are not barriers.

Their Values:

They embrace volunteerism
They foster community
They strive for excellence
They listen to and learn from everyone
They nurture personal development through high-quality training and instruction
They strive for diversity

Winter Activities

Alpine Skiing

Mono skiing
The mono ski is a device used mainly by people with limited use (or absence) of the lower extremities. A mono ski, also known as a sit-ski, consists of a molded seat mounted on a metal frame. A shock absorber beneath the seat eases riding on uneven terrain and helps in turning by maximizing ski-snow contact. Modern mono skis interface with a single, ordinary alpine ski by means of a “ski foot,” a metal or plastic block in the shape of a boot sole that clicks into the ski’s binding. A mono skier use outriggers for stability; an outrigger resembles a forearm crutch with a short ski on the bottom. People new to mono-skiing are often surprised to see how much terrain is skiable in a mono ski; advanced mono skiers can be found not only carving turns on groomed runs but also skiing moguls, terrain parks, race courses, glades and even backcountry terrain—in short, wherever stand-up skiers can go.

Bi-skiing
A bi-ski is a sit ski with a can be skied independently like the mono-ski with hand-held outriggers, or can be skied with the assistance of an instructor using stabilizing outriggers and tethers. The skier moves his or her head, shoulders or hand-held outriggers to turn the bi-ski. The bi-ski has a lift mechanism for getting onto a chairlift. It can also be used to accustom a new sit-skier to the snow before moving to a mono-ski. Bi-skis are used by people with upper and lower limb impairments and with poor balance. People with these impairments might bi-ski:

Cerebral palsy
Multiple sclerosis
Muscular dystrophy
Amputees
Spinal cord injury
Severe epilepsy
Spinal bifida
Severe balance impairment

Outriggers are metal elbow crutches with the tip section of a ski pivoted on the bottom of the crutch. Some outriggers have adjustable brakes attached to the back edge of the ski to give some speed control. Outriggers are used to aid balance and/or to give support. Outriggers are used by mono-skiers, bi-skiers and standing skiers needing aid with balance.

3-Track & 4-Track skiing
3 track skiing is defined as skiing on one ski with outriggers to maintain balance. The student is able to stand on one ski and maintain dynamic balance with the assistance of outriggers (poles). 4 track skiing is very similar to 3 track but the skier has 2 feet on skies, rather than one.

Visually Impaired
Alpine (downhill) skiing is one of the rare opportunities available that allows the blind individual to move freely at speed through time and space. It provides the opportunity to embrace and commune with the primal force of gravity, thus experiencing the sheer exhilaration of controlled mass in motion, in a physically independent setting.

For those with Visual Impairment, a sighted Guide is needed. For lesser impairment the guide may simply need to ski a short distance in front of the skier to show the way. Skiers with greater vision loss or who are totally blind will generally ski using a headset arrangement to give audible instruction.

Snowboarding
Snowboarding has become very popular with New England DisAbled Sports students. People with cognitive or physical disAbilities are able to participate and experience the thrills of riding the mountain. The number of snowboarding lessons increases each year as the sport grows in popularity within our community. New England DisAbled Sports offers ski and snowboard lessons daily throughout the winter season.

Snowshoeing
Come explore the snow trails and fresh air of the mountains covered in snow while snowshoeing. Enjoy a winter hike in the woods from the more stable base of snowshoes. Take in peaceful scenery while working to improve your physical fitness level, balance and spatial awareness. You’ll love it!

Winter Biathlon
A seemingly unlikely combination of events – one is an aerobic activity (skiing or running) which requires strength, speed and endurance; the other is a passive activity (shooting) which requires concentration and a steady hand (difficult after you’ve been skiing, running or walking all out!).

New England DisAbled Sports: Winter Activities

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New Englands Disabled Sports- Winter Activities

About New England DisAbled Sports
New England DisAbled Sports is a national recognized program which provides year round adaptive sport instruction to adults and children with physical and cognitive disAbilities.

Their programs allow individuals with disAbilities to enjoy a boundary-free environment, enjoy outdoor recreation with friends and family, as well as provide access to equipment and instruction that might otherwise be unavailable.

Their Mission:
The Mission of New England DisAbled Sports is, through sports, to change lives affected by disAbilities. Download New England DisAbled Sports brochure

Their Vision:
They envision a world where disAbilities are not barriers.

Their Values:

They embrace volunteerism
They foster community
They strive for excellence
They listen to and learn from everyone
They nurture personal development through high-quality training and instruction
They strive for diversity

Winter Activities

Alpine Skiing

Cerebral palsy
Multiple sclerosis
Muscular dystrophy
Amputees
Spinal cord injury
Severe epilepsy
Spinal bifida
Severe balance impairment

New England Handicapped Sports Association

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New England Handicapped Sports Association NEHSA is a group of people who pool their knowledge, skills and courage to participate in sports activities. Skiing remains the central sport because of its amazing adaptability to many types of disabilities.

NEHSA Goals — to sponsor and deliver outdoor recreational activities in a social atmosphere — Make it Fun!

New England Handicapped Sports Association (NEHSA) is a charitable organization [501(c) 3] located at Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, New Hampshire. Founded in 1972 as a weekend alpine ski program for people with physical disabilities, it serves those who want to enjoy active and independent lives through participation in sports. In the past 40 years it has grown to include a wide variety of physical, cognitive, and developmental disabilities. NEHSA also takes pride in welcoming our disabled Veterans home, whether it is for therapeutic reasons or for rest and relaxation. In addition to adaptive skiing, both stand-up skiing and sit skiing, NEHSA also provides services for adaptive snowboarding, cross-country skiing, kayaking, rowing, tubing and water skiing. The services for these sports include access to specialized adaptive equipment, access to highly skilled coaches, and individual instruction. Through these programs, NEHSA enables its clients to gain a sense of independence, a positive attitude, access to social opportunities, and personal growth through the challenges that sport and recreation present.

Anyone Can Learn to Ski/Snowboard — NEHSA offers adaptive alpine and cross-country ski and snowboard lessons to people of all ages and all disabilities. At Mount Sunapee Resort, where our home base and winter program reside, skiers participate in either a stand up or sit-down program, some people try both. Among our stand-up skiers are amputees, persons who have recovered from polio or strokes, skiers with cerebral palsy, blind skiers, deaf skiers, and persons with developmental disabilities. Participants in our sit-down program may include persons with spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia and quadriplegia. Cross-country lessons are offered by NEHSA instructors at Eastman Cross-Country Center in Grantham NH.

Anyone Can Kayak/Paddle/Row – NEHSA’S summer program offers the opportunity for people living with a disability to develop new skills, build physical strength, and enjoy the beautiful summer weather with family and friends. Lessons are offered to all ages and all disabilities from June through September at Lake Sunapee State Beach.

No experience is necessary and NEHSA provides all the necessary equipment. The staff of summer volunteers train intensively all year to insure students’ safety and fun on the water. There are a number of instructors certified through the American Canoe Association (ACA) and the American Rowing Association. NEHSA partners with the Lake Sunapee Rowing Club to offer adaptive rowing opportunities.

Galaxy S5 Is An Accessible Phone

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The Galaxy S5 is equipped with features that were designed with the needs of senior and disabled communities in mind. These features are highlighted on an accessibility menu that is listed by category, enabling users to easily identify and operate them.

The following features are included to make technology more accessible:

Visibility
TalkBack reads text on the smartphone’s screen and works with the device’s camera by dividing the screen into nine sections to assist the user to locate faces before capturing photographs. If one person is identified, it guides the user to position the face in the middle of the screen.

Through this feature, the user can more easily utilise the Galaxy S5’s 16MP camera. This feature also enables the smartphone to read numbers that are pressed, out loud.

In order to protect the privacy of the visually impaired, the user can access the Galaxy S5’s features with the screen turned off. With this tool, the user can operate the device without having to be conscious of others in public places. When the device is operated with the screen off, power consumption is also reduced.

The Galaxy S5 provides seven different font sizes including smallest, very small, small, medium, large, very large and largest so that users can choose the font size they are able to read most comfortably.

It is equipped with a feature that reverses colours to increase readability on the display. Additionally, for those who have difficulty reading texts in certain colours, the device allows users to customise and fine-tune subtle colours.

The Galaxy S5 uses an Optical Reader to extract texts and data from images, documents, name cards and QR codes in order to identify patterns of colour and read text out loud. This enables the visually impaired to do more with their device, such as choosing an outfit by perceiving colours shown on the display.

Hearing
Developed specifically for people who have a hearing impairment, the device vibrates to notify the user when the baby is crying. Users can also receive these alerts through Samsung’s extended wearable line of Gear devices, including Gear 2, Gear Fit and Gear 1. Users can easily distinguish these notifications by setting a different vibration pattern from incoming calls or alarm alerts.

The Auto Haptic allows the device to be switched to vibrate. This feature switches sound to vibration – the Galaxy S5 vibrates with sounds produced by certain applications for music, games and video for that enhanced sensory experience.

Users who are deaf or hard of hearing are able to utilise the Flash notifications alert function to notify them of any alerts, incoming calls and alarms. The light on the camera will start to flash to draw attention to the device, in order to respond to a message or to be reminded of a scheduled event.

The Turn Off All Sounds feature allows users to mute all smartphone sounds in one go, helping the hard of hearing to avoid mistakes such as having their phone ring in a library or during a performance.

Physical disabilities
The assistant menu is a virtual mouse pad designed for users with limited hand movement. It enables them to enjoy frequently-used features more quickly and easily. Frequently used menus can be set and the touch pad and cursor’s size are adjustable, as well as the speed of the cursor.

The smartphone additionally provides an “Assistant Plus” which displays menu options for favourite features such as photo gallery and contacts.

Air Gesture allows the screen to be switched on. This feature enables users who are unable to push hardware buttons to turn on the screen simply by waving their hand over the device.

Users can also customise the device input method with interaction control. This functionality lets the user choose an input method when using applications or settings. A user can disable the touch screen input, as well as the lock auto screen rotation and the hardware key, to prevent making accidental commands.

Accessibility features
In addition to the above-listed features, the Galaxy S5 offers functions that enable users to easily operate the device’s accessibility features. By pressing the home key three times while in any screen, one can easily set or disable accessibility, talkback, colour reversal and input control.

“The Galaxy S5 exemplifies Samsung’s commitment to ‘people-inspired’ innovation and through the development of ground-breaking technology we are confident that the practical and valuable features will empower individuals with disabilities and in turn, improve lives,” says Fleischer.

How One Toys ‘R’ Us Trip Brought Mobility to Hundreds of Disabled Kids

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These $200 alternatives to power wheelchairs are helping physically impaired kids get moving.

Cole Galloway’s workspace at the University of Delaware resembles a ransacked toy store. There are piles of plastic tubing, swim noodles, stuffed animals, and battery-powered Jeep and Barbie cars everywhere. But Galloway, 48, is a physical therapy professor and infant behavior expert whose lab has a very clear mission: to provide mobility to children with cognitive or physical disabilities.

Galloway started his infant behavior lab to study how children learn to move their bodies. He was particularly interested in finding ways to close what he calls “an exploration gap” — the difference between typically developing children and those who suffer from mobility issues due to conditions like cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. In 2007 Sunil Agrawal, a professor of mechanical engineering at the university, approached Galloway in a conversation he says went something like this: I’ve got small robots. You’ve got small babies. I wonder if we can do something together.

The two professors started building power mobility robots that let disabled children explore their surroundings with greater confidence and independence. But due to the cost and heft of the parts, their early vehicles cost tens of thousands of dollars and weighed up to 150 pounds, making them inaccessible to the families who needed them the most. Galloway’s solution to those problems came to him during a visit to Toys ‘R’ Us, where he saw he could shift his vision of “babies driving robots” to the lower tech “babies driving race cars.” It was then that Go Baby Go was born.

Unlike electric wheelchairs, which are usually reserved by kids above age three, Galloway’s cars can be used in the critical early years of development. He estimates that so far Go Baby Go has retrofitted an estimated 100 toy cars, a small dent for the more than half a million American children under the age of five who have mobility problems. To spread his mission, Galloway has traveled across the country, posted YouTube videos and spoken with dozens of parents. He hopes that others can learn from his work and build cars of their own: “If you’re not going to drop what you’re doing and come work for us, at least contact us — we’ll send you everything we have.”