Winter Paralympics 2010

The Winter Olympics finish this Sunday, but for many athletes this is just the beginning. March 12th sees the launch of the much-anticipated Winter Paralympics. This runs until 21st March, and there are several events that will involve visually-impaired athletes. A description of the events and schedules are below:

Alpine Skiing
In Paralympic alpine skiing, racers can reach speeds of more than 100 kilometres an hour, travelling down a vertical drop that ranges from 120 to 800 metres. Visually-impaired skiers use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers but ski with a guide.

Alpine skiing visually-impaired schedule:
• March 13th: Men's and Women’s Downhill and Women's Downhill
• March 15th: Men's Super-G and Women's Super-G
• March 16th: Men's and Women’s Super Combined Downhill and Men's and Women’s Super Combined Slalom
• March 19th: - Men's and Women’s Giant Slalom 1st & 2nd Runs
• March 21st: Men's Slalom and Women’s Slalom 1st & 2nd Runs

Biathlon
This combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Visually-impaired skiers use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers but ski with a guide. Visually-impaired skiers use an acoustic system for shooting that uses differing tones as the rifle is aimed toward the bull’s eye.

Biathlon visually-impaired schedule:
• March 13th: Men's and Women’s 3km Pursuit Qualification and Final
• March 17th: Men's and Women’s 12.5 km

Cross-Country skiing
Visually-impaired skiers use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers but ski with a guide. Paralympic cross-country skiers compete in men’s and women’s individual events over short, middle and long distances ranging from 2.5 kilometres to 20 kilometres.

Cross-Country skiing visually-impaired schedule:
• March 15th: Cross-Country Skiing - Men's 20 km and Women’s 15km, Free
• March 21st: Men's and Women’s 1 km Sprint Qualification, Semi-finals & Finals
• March 18th: Men's and Women’s 10 km, Classic

Other sports at the Winter Paralympics that do not have an adjustment for visually-impaired athletes are Ice sledge Hockey and Wheelchair Curling.

Good luck to all of the GB athletes!

For more information visit vancouver2010.com/paralympic-games/

Facts about blindness

Not all people that are ‘blind’ have a complete loss of vision...find out more about this and other interesting facts about blindness below.

‘Blind’ means a high degree of vision loss, ie seeing much less than is normal or perhaps nothing at all. So most blind people can see something but not very much, even if they wear glasses.

‘Partial sight' is a less severe loss of vision. Partially-sighted people can see more than blind people but less than sighted people.

The most common myth is that all blind people live in a world of total darkness. In fact only about 18 per cent of blind people are classed as totally blind and the majority of these can distinguish between light and dark.

The Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys survey of disability (1988) identified over 2 million adults in Britain with a 'seeing difficulty.'

If you or your company need to send information to people who are blind or visually impaired, A2i can transcribe documents into Braille, Large Print and Audio for you. Contact us on info@a2i.co.uk or 01179 44 00 44 for more information, or visit our website www.a2i.co.uk

A2i charity cake sale

Earlier this month, A2i organised a charity cake sale in aid of the Haiti earthquake appeal.

Staff made cakes, and we sold them to people and companies in the units and offices around us. We raised £145 which will hopefully help people who have been badly affected by this disaster.