Hello, How long will it take to have this kind of game in India? Thanks for posting.
On July 21, 2015 1:55:08 AM GMT+05:30, avinash shahi <[email protected]> wrote: >http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/science/a-game-of-tennis-tests-notions-of-blindness.html >WATERTOWN, Mass. — Dan Guilbeault was 3 when doctors discovered a >tumor called an optic glioma pressed against his optic nerves. He >continued to play the sports he loved — basketball, baseball and >football — until he lost most of his sight at 11. > >Now he is 19 and almost completely blind, and his favorite sport is >tennis. > >When he first heard about tennis for the visually impaired, his >reaction was “No way!” he said. “I was skeptical.” > >So were faculty members at the Perkins School for the Blind here, when >a sighted student from nearby Newton proposed it nearly two years ago. >But Perkins, known for athletic innovations like adapted fencing, >decided to offer what are believed to be the first blind tennis >classes in the country. > >Like tennis for sighted people, the game requires speedy court >coverage and precise shot-making. Blind players rely on their ears to >follow a foam ball filled with ball bearings that rattles when it >bounces or is struck. > >“Your ears have become your eyes,” said Dr. Robert Gotlin, director of >orthopedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in >New York City. > >Photo > > > >CLASS Getting a feel of the net at Lighthouse International in a >program by Tennis Serves, a group started by a high school student. >Credit Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times > >Sejal Vallabh, a 17-year-old high school junior in Newton, encountered >the sport during a summer internship in Tokyo and then proposed the >program at Perkins. She set up a volunteer organization, Tennis >Serves, which introduced the sport last year at Lighthouse >International in New York and the California School for the Blind in >Fremont. > >As blind tennis grows in the United States, where the Census Bureau >estimates that 1.8 million people over 15 have “severe difficulty >seeing,” it is testing popular notions of the limitations of >blindness. > >“I want to show that it is possible for blind athletes to play >tennis,” Ms. Vallabh said. No one believes it, she said, “until they >see it for themselves.” > >The most important adaptation is the ball, which is larger and made of >foam, wrapped around a plastic shell that holds the ball bearings. > >“It sounds like bells ringing,” said Emmanuel Ford, 10, who has >cerebral palsy and is learning to hit tennis balls at Lighthouse. > > > > > >Photo > > > >FOCUS Michael Harris practices with Kiran Prasad, a Columbia student >and coordinator for Tennis Serves. The ball is larger and made of >foam, with ball bearings inside. Credit Béatrice de Géa for The New >York Times > > >Other adaptations include a smaller court with a badminton net lowered >to the ground, string taped along the lines and junior rackets with >oversize heads. Players with some sight get two bounces, the >completely blind three. Only one set is played, and an umpire calls >the lines. > >The first sound-adapted tennis ball was designed in 1984 by Miyoshi >Takei, a blind high school student in Japan. Now, about 300 players >compete in tournaments there; blind tennis is also played in China, >South Korea, Taiwan, Britain and Russia. > >During matches, Mr. Takei, a 16-time national champion who worked as a >massage therapist for older people, mostly hit flat, aggressive >strokes, but lobbed the ball on defense to regain court position. >Sometimes he lunged or dived for shots. (He died last year, at 42, >after falling in front of a train.) > >His widow, Etsuko, who is also blind, said he saw the “court in his >mind and he knew where he was standing, where the ball was flying and >bouncing.” By listening, she said, “he could control the ball very >well.” > > > >Advertisement >Continue reading the main story > > >Advertisement >Continue reading the main story >An expert on orientation and mobility for the blind, William R. >Wiener, dean of graduate studies at the University of North Carolina, >Greensboro, said that sound localization “is so important when blind >people navigate the world,” and added, “Listening to the ball, >locating where it is and swinging at it probably helps you with the >sport and also with your mobility.” > >Photo > > > >PLAY "I was glad when I hit my first ball against someone," said Dan >Guilbeault, a student at the Perkins School for the Blind in >Watertown, Mass. Credit Thomas Lin/The New York Times > >Blind tennis is made possible, scientists say, by the adaptability of >the human brain — which appears to repurpose its visual area, the >occipital cortex, to process sound and touch in response to blindness. > > >A series of studies discovered activity in the visual cortex when >blind test subjects read Braille, and found that a blind woman could >no longer make sense of the raised dots after suffering an occipital >stroke. Another study, of sighted subjects who were blindfolded, >showed that the occipital cortex began processing tactile and auditory >information within five days. > > >“How it works is not a mystery,” said Melvyn A. Goodale, director of >the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario. “We >know that it is possible to localize sounds, and it is likely that the >blind get better at this than sighted people.” > >Dr. Goodale and his colleagues are studying how echo processing works >in the occipital cortex of blind echolocation experts like Daniel >Kish, who as a baby lost his sight to retinoblastoma. Human >echolocators use palatal clicks or hand claps to “see” objects around >them, like sonar in bats, only bats use ultrasonic frequencies that >can resolve flying insects. This skill allows Mr. Kish to hike along >cliff edges and ride a mountain bike. > >While humans don’t have the auditory resolution to echolocate a moving >tennis ball, blind tennis “promotes freedom of movement,” said Mr. >Kish, president of World Access for the Blind, a nonprofit group that >has taught echolocation and other mobility skills to hundreds around >the world. “Most blind kids just don’t get early experience >interacting with flying projectiles. > > >-- >Avinash Shahi >Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU > > > >Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility >of mobile phones / Tabs on: >http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > >Search for old postings at: >http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > >To unsubscribe send a message to >[email protected] >with the subject unsubscribe. > >To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >please visit the list home page at >http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > >Disclaimer: >1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking >of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its >veracity; > >2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the >mails sent through this mailing list.. -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
