Fantastic Stuart.
All The Best,
Ken
On 26 Oct 2022, at 08:30, Tony Sweeney <tonymsweeney@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:===========================================================
Stuart’s life growing up with sight loss and becoming a champion at
‘blind tennis’
Stephen Holland
Ireland’s number one blind tennis player is encouraging all visually
impaired people to take a chance and try something new.
Stuart Haxell was born blind and grew up in Ballytivnan, after much
deliberation around the specifics of his impairment he was first
diagnosed with retina dystrophy at the age of two, this means he can
recognise vague shapes, but everything blends together for him.
In the lead up to the patient-led organisation Fighting Blindness’s
Retina Public Engagement Day in Dublin on November 5, facilitator of the
Fighting Blindness Borders’ Peer Support Group Stuart spoke with The
Sligo Champion about his personal experiences of visual impairment, the
journey through national, secondary, and third-level education as a
blind person, and his own surprise when he discovered the sport that
suited him best was in fact tennis.
“I have very little vision, I might be able to see a bit of light but I
cannot make out any details so the way I interact with things is mostly
through technology, things like voice assistants and speech software on
my laptop or phone,” he said.
Stuart, aged 28, says it is incredible to see how fast technology to
assist blind people has progressed since he first started school but
that overall, his experiences as a pupil in the Mercy Primary School and
Summerhill College were very positive.
“Primary school was interesting, I started off with a classroom
assistant, but I had a lot more sight when I was younger and made use of
magnifiers and things like that. As I got older my sight deteriorated
more and I started to use a laptop with speech,” he said.
“The software started off so poor but now it is incredible, it nearly
makes me wish I could go through school again because it is so much more
accessible, I just missed out on some of the really good stuff.
“All the teachers were so accommodating and willing to adapt to my
needs, I went through mainstream school the whole time and I would say I
had a fantastic experience.
“It highlighted to teachers the needs of someone with a disability and
now they might be a bit more prepared for other students that came after
me, so I am happy to have provided that experience.”
In secondary school Stuart faced yet more challenges and says it wasn’t
always easy in Summerhill College with the need to traverse three
different buildings and cross the road while he attended his various
classes.
“In primary school you always dealt with one or two teachers, but in
secondary there were so many teachers and they all had different ways of
doing things. In some ways it was easier because different teachers were
quick to adapt and the students would help me with anything I needed,”
he said.
“It was very different and of course there were challenges, but what’s
life without challenges?”
When it comes to challenges, Stuart has set himself quite a few and has
always been involved in sports despite his impairment, having gained
second dan black belt in Karate and a blue belt in Jujitsu and
participated in the martial arts sports for more than ten years before
turning his full focus towards blind tennis.
“Karate and Jujitsu were challenging, when the teacher would do
demonstrations they would have to describe in great detail how to do it
because with blind people you can’t use vague descriptions, you need to
be very precise in how you describe things,” he said.
“That’s a big thing, people shouldn’t be afraid to ask a blind person
what type of details you need to give them, people need to talk to find
out.”
But it was while studying in IT Sligo for a business degree that the
Sligo Sports Partnership and Blind Tennis Ireland came to put on a
demonstration of the sport.
I was asked to come down and take part and I thought it sounded a bit
ridiculous and asked what will this turn out to be, blind people playing
tennis, how many injuries will this cause? But surprisingly, as soon as
I started playing it clicked and I really enjoyed it.” he said.
The rules are similar to traditional tennis with a few alterations and
uses an adapted sponge ball that makes a noise when it bounces, this
allows players to follow the sound of the ball and they have a number of
bounces before it must be returned to the other side of the court.
“You either get two or three bounces depending on your category, I am in
category B1 which is for those with the least sight and gets three
bounces. You wear a blindfold because even the slightest bit of sight
would give you an advantage over another player,” he said.
Stuart trains for the sport each week in the Sligo Tennis Club and says
that he would love it if more people in the Sligo area would get involved.
Stuart has recently returned from Birmingham where he won the blind
tennis doubles’ competition, and this qualifies him to take part in the
British Visual Impaired Nationals in Wrexham in November.
He has competed in the World Championships on two occasions and
currently stands as the number one player in Ireland in the B1 category.
“I’d love for it to become a Paralympic sport and represent Ireland.
There is a requirement for a minimum number of countries that need to
take part, but we have wheelchair tennis so it’s a possibility,” he said.
While studying at the former IT Sligo, Stuart gained a degree in
business in 2016 and a master’s degree in marketing in 2018, later
gaining a six-month marketing placement with the Irish Guide Dogs as
part of its Employment Vision Project.
“The Employment Vision Project was to try and get blind people in
employment and I do think there are issues with blind people being
passed over for employment,” he said.
“I think that’s because some employers might not know what
accommodations are out there to allow blind people to work on the same
level as everyone else. There are a number of grants, the Workplace
Equipment Adaptation Grant, that is a certain level of funding for
employers to get specialised equipment for people with a disability,” he
said.
As a facilitator for the Fighting Blindness support group, Stuart says
it’s great to have a place where blind people can come together and
discuss the issues that affect them directly.
“We discuss anything and everything, there might be problems someone
isn’t sure how to solve that other blind people have encountered, it
gives us a chance to help each other,” he said.
“It’s basically a space where we can talk about things that sighted
people might not be able to fully understand, even though they are
willing to try.
“I’ve actually got a few sighted people to try and play blindfolded
tennis so they will get an idea of what it’s like and the reactions are
interesting, they don’t like it.”
Stuart is passionate about overcoming some of the challenges he has
faced as a blind person and says that his message to others, who may be
feeling a bit down about their impairment, is to take a step back,
breathe, and pay attention to all the things they are able to do.
“I would say there is a way through every problem but you just have to
find it. Don’t be afraid to try something, even if it seems ridiculous,
you never know what will come from it,” he said.
The Fighting Blindness Retina Public Engagement Day will return as an
in-person event for the first time in three years on Saturday November 5.
Aimed at people with sight loss and their families, the event will take
place in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Dublin 2, and will also be
streamed live so that everyone can take part, no matter where they are
in Ireland.
RETINA offers the sight loss community an opportunity to meet eye
experts and to have their questions answered. People will hear of the
latest cutting-edge clinical trials underway that have the potential to
save and restore sight. They will also gain information on the support
available to them and have an opportunity to meet others on a similar
journey and to share experiences.
There are approximately 272,000 people in Ireland living with blindness
or vision impairment, this event will be of huge interest to the sight
loss community who will be able to attend both in-person, and remotely
should they so choose.
Registration for the conference is open at www.fightingblindness.ie.
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/sligochampion/news/stuarts-life-growing-up-with-sight-loss-and-becoming-a-champion-at-blind-tennis-42095509.html?
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