Quite often our technology keeps us chained to a chair or living room sofa with the need to devour more content from the internet. But, whether you are visually impaired or not, physical activity is very important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. If you thought that technology couldn’t help motivate the blind to be more physically active, think again.
A group of 25 individuals from the Georgia Blind Sports Association in partnership with the United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) and the Amerigroup, are on a 9 month health initiative called the USABA/Amerigroup Foundation National Fitness Challenge (#NFCChallenge2017). Their progress will be tracked through the use of smart phones and the use of Fitbit wearables. Although the Fitbit devices do not have any type of accessibility built in, the accompanying app is very accessible on both iOS and Android devices. These athletes will be participating in sporting events such as golf, kayaking, tandem cycling and goalball during the 9 month fitness challenge. Additionally, the wearables and accompanying app will help share their progress amongst other teams participating in the challenge in order to promote friendly competition. According to the executive director at Georgia Blind Sports Hal Simpson, “we’ve found the challenge of achieving daily and monthly goals helps keep participants motivated.”
Now as I sit in front of this computer writing this article about physical activity it seems ironic that I feel chained to a chair writing about ttech. But, having used Fitbit products in the past to prepare for both 10 and 15 km runs, I can vouch that this is truly some of the best use of Cool Blind Tech.
If you feel like using this type of technology to get you excited about participating in a fitness challenge, check out some of the links above to join these motivational associations. Now get out there and get active and excuse me while I go get my jump rope!
