Working With British Blind Sport
The training programme is expanding!
See Sport Differently is a participation campaign that we've been working on with the UK's national charity for people with sight loss, British Blind Sport. The Sport England-funded programme is designed to tackle the disparity of physical activity amongst blind and partially sighted people.
The programme has already seen more than ten workshops delivered to 111 staff across five of our leisure centres, where British Blind Sport’s team educate them about what it’s like living with sight loss, as well as thinking about physical and psychological barriers that exist at the leisure centre for those with sight loss.
The sessions provide advice on communication such as the suitable questions to ask in a front-of-house role, how to act as a guide for someone, and using screen reader-friendly descriptive text for social media images.
Advice was also provided on making physical alterations to the venue, including adopting consistent layouts for equipment, and including tactile markings and contrasting colours.
We're so proud to announce that we are now looking to expand the training programme to more of our leisure centres across the country!
Frankie Rohan, Workforce Officer at British Blind Sport, is partially sighted and delivered the workshops to staff.
She said: “Research shows that blind and partially sighted people are twice as likely to be inactive compared to people without sight loss – and leisure centre operators are ideally placed to help us change this.
“Leisure centres are based at the heart of communities – and they are a great place for us to start in terms of helping to break down any perceived barriers for those with sight loss.
“The workshops themselves are delivered by people living with sight loss, such as myself, so the sessions provide great insight to leisure centre staff about quick and effective ways that they can make a difference.
Rob Clark, Learning and Development Partner at Places Leisure, said: “Creating a place where the whole community can come together to exercise and socialise is really important to us, so we are proud to be working with British Blind Sport to explore ways in which we can increase access to those hard-to-reach communities – one of which is those living with sight loss.
“Colleagues across our centres came away from the British Blind Sport workshops with a better understanding of how slight modifications to communication and the physical environment can level the playing field for those with sight loss.
Jonny Pickering, Head of Healthy Communities at Places Leisure added, “We constantly strive to provide the most inclusive service possible for our customers. The See Sport Differently training allows our colleagues to experience firsthand what it’s like to access leisure centres, from the perspective of blind and partially sighted people. With this insight, our teams can remove any potential barriers these customers may face, ensuring a first-class service at our venues. We look forward to continuing our partnership with British Blind Sport and Royal National Institute of Blind People”.
For more information about British Blind Sport visit www.britishblindsport.org.uk and for more details about See Sport Differently visit www.britishblindsport.org.uk/see-sport-differently