Contact: Karie Pinnix

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State’s National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision is hosting an awareness event, Play Without Limits: Adapting Sports and Games for the Blind, on Sept. 27, 9-11 a.m. on the campus Drill Field.

The center aims to raise awareness about blindness and low vision, or B/LV, and provide guidance to other organizations that could host adaptive sports awareness events.

The event will feature an information booth with adapted activity demonstrations including bocce ball, soccer, cornhole and human guide techniques. Students and other campus and community participants can watch blind hockey, goalball and beep baseball videos to learn how people with vision impairments can play competitive sports.

Participants can spin a trivia wheel and have a chance to win prizes. In case of rain, the event will be postponed to Sept. 28. NRTC staff are looking for volunteers to assist with activities, and students interested in volunteering are invited to fill out an online form.

This activity is among the technical assistance projects funded under a NRTC grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, the federal government’s primary disability research organization.

The center previously created an outreach guide in 2019 on How to Host a White Cane Awareness Day Celebration, which has been popular among rehabilitation professionals who work with individuals who have B/LV.

The NRTC hopes that this event will spread awareness, provide educational opportunities, and perhaps spark interest in students to work in the B/LV field. The event aligns with the NRTC mission to enhance employment and independent living outcomes for individuals with B/LV through research, training, education and dissemination.

For more information, contact event coordinator Emma Schultz at eschultz@colled.msstate.edu.

To learn more about the NRTC and its resources, visit www.blind.msstate.edu and www.ntac.blind.msstate.edu.