British Blind Sport launch Activity Finder!

The Activity Finder is a new and innovative way for blind and partially sighted people, their family members and professionals to search for VI-friendly clubs and community groups across the United Kingdom.

British Blind Sport has been working over the last year to ensure that the database is comprehensive and covers over 30 different sports and physical activities.

To date there are around 1000 opportunities listed on the Activity Finder database across the United Kingdom, with more to come.

In the next couple of days, they will circulate a link to all clubs and organisations who have registered activities on the Activity Finder which will allow them to generate log in details meaning they can review and update their information on our website before the Activity Finder launches on Monday 20th January.

If a club or organisation already has member log in details for our website, they can simply log in with those and start checking their information.

We foresee there will be an increase in enquiries for the clubs and organisations listed on the Activity Finder once it has launched, so we advise that steps are taken by all clubs and NGBs to share this information internally and that relevant staff or volunteers are briefed to positively respond to any resulting enquiries.

We will also be running a competition this week, offering a £50 Amazon voucher to 4 different clubs who are registered on our Activity Finder before 19th January. The winners will be selected at random from all registered clubs, so keep any eye on our Facebook page to see who won and please encourage any clubs or activities that aren’t registered to sign up before the deadline!

We will be in touch with the winning club directly to notify them too.

BBS hope that the Activity Finder can help other organisations and sight loss associations working with the VI community to more easily and efficiently be able to answer queries around sports and physical activities and that it will be a universally helpful tool for anyone working with blind and partially sighted people.

National Partnerships Manager Logan Gray said,

At BBS we are very excited to finally be launching the Activity Finder in January! We know from our research that there are a number of additional barriers for VI people to increase their activity levels, awareness (knowing where to find activities) is one of them. We’ve worked hard to register over 1000 clubs on the Activity Finder so we can share this information publically with our members and the wider sight loss community in a fully accessible format. Now, everyone can more easily find inclusive, positive opportunities there are out there.”

We invite National Governing Bodies and organisations within the sight loss sector to join in with our #SpotlightOnSport campaign which will follow the launch of the Activity Finder and will celebrate a different sport featured on the Activity Finder each day.

We also encourage our partners to share the launch via news and social media channels, using #BBSActivityFinder, and to test out the Activity Finder in order to provide us with feedback.

We wish to provide our thanks to everyone who has contributed to the development of this tool including the clubs who have registered, our members and colleagues who have conducted testing, our primary funder Sport England and our web developers TMC.

The Activity Finder will be launching on Monday 20th January at www.britishblindsport.org.uk and on our social media channels.

For more information about the Activity Finder, please email hannah@britishblindsport.org.uk or call 01926 424247

NOTES TO EDITORS

Based in Leamington Spa, British Blind Sport is the national disability sport organisation that represents visually impaired people in sport across the UK. The charity helps blind and partially sighted people get active and play sport. Sport and recreational activities can enhance the lives of people with visual impairments, by improving their health and increasing their social interaction.

We encourage adults and children to participate in activities at all levels, from grassroots to the Paralympic Games. For more information about the event and British Blind Sport please contact call 01926 424 247 or email info@britishblindsport.org.uk.