Abstract des Autors

Sensory disability, "a condition in which one or more of the senses are diminished in their effectiveness to respond to stimuli", often limits an individual's involvement in active living. This paper addresses issues surrounding active living opportunities for people with visual and hearing impairments. The discussion focuses primarily on individuals who are blind or deaf, rather than people with an impaired sense of taste, smell, or touch, since the active living implications are far greater for citizens who are deaf or blind. Individuals who are visually impaired, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind are included within this discussion but are not the focus of the paper. The impact of sensory impairment is influenced by whether the lack of response to sensory stimulation is partial or total and whether loss has existed since birth (congenital) or resulted from injury or disease (adventitious). Although vision and hearing loss are both sensory impairments, they are more different than similar. Vision impairments primarily affect mobility while hearing loss influences communication and socialisation. As a result, these disabilities influence physical activity and fitness testing and counselling in different ways. Therefore, this paper examines each disability separately. Verf.-Referat