IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i8p5584-d1127834.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“You Feel a Sense of Accomplishment”: Outdoor Adventure Experiences of Youths with Visual Impairments during a One-Week Sports Camp

Author

Listed:
  • Lauren J. Lieberman

    (Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies & Physical Education (KSSPE), State University of New York Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive, Brockport, New York, NY 14420, USA)

  • Katie Ericson

    (Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, 301 Barkley Memorial Center, Lincoln, NE 68583-0738, USA)

  • Melanie Perreault

    (Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies & Physical Education (KSSPE), State University of New York Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive, Brockport, New York, NY 14420, USA)

  • Pamela Beach

    (Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies & Physical Education (KSSPE), State University of New York Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive, Brockport, New York, NY 14420, USA)

  • Kelsey Williams

    (Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies & Physical Education (KSSPE), State University of New York Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive, Brockport, New York, NY 14420, USA)

Abstract

There are many cognitive, physical, and social–emotional benefits for youths from participating in outdoor adventure activities. However, youths with visual impairments are not given the same opportunities to participate in outdoor adventure activities as their peers without disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine the outdoor adventure experiences of youths with visual impairments participating in a week-long sports camp. Thirty-seven youths with visual impairment (ages 9–19 years) attending a one-week sports camp participated in this study. Participants engaged in a variety of outdoor adventure activities throughout the week of camp (e.g., sailing, hiking, rock climbing, biking, kayaking). Participants provided written accounts about their outdoor adventure experiences and were observed throughout the week during each activity to examine instructional strategies and task modifications. Additionally, 10 randomly chosen athletes, their one-on-one coaches, and five outdoor recreation specialists participated in focus group interviews. The data analysis revealed three major themes: (1) Benefits, (2) Support, and (3) Barriers. The subthemes of benefits were enjoyment, independence, and relationships; the subthemes of support were instructional strategies and task modifications; and subthemes for barriers were fear and anxiety, exclusion and low expectations, and lack of equipment. These findings support the inclusion of youths with visual impairments in all outdoor adventure programming with appropriate instruction and modification.

Suggested Citation

  • Lauren J. Lieberman & Katie Ericson & Melanie Perreault & Pamela Beach & Kelsey Williams, 2023. "“You Feel a Sense of Accomplishment”: Outdoor Adventure Experiences of Youths with Visual Impairments during a One-Week Sports Camp," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(8), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:8:p:5584-:d:1127834
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/8/5584/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/8/5584/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hamid A. Alhaj & Mahmoud Fayyad & Maha Saber-Ayad, 2024. "The legal, ethical, and psychological aspects of self-determination and right to information access for people with visual impairment: a critical review," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:8:p:5584-:d:1127834. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.