Swedish VR gives fans insight into visually-impaired sports
The simulator allows fans to experience the difficulty of playing football with different visual impairments such as albinism and glaucoma.
MALMO (Reuters) - A new virtual reality experience in Sweden is allowing fans to see sports through the eyes of athletes with visual impairments; athletes like Fatmir Seremeti who had to pass up a potential football career and now competes in the sport of goalball.
Seremeti was a promising footballer in his youth but at age 13 he began developing glaucoma and within two years he had lost approximately 80 percent of his sight. Discovering the sport of goalball gave the Swede a new purpose in his life and he has since gone on to win a world championship and two Paralympic medals for his country.
Goalball is specifically designed to be played by athletes with visual impairments, who compete in teams of three using a ball with bells in it. Wearing blindfolds to ensure that the game is played fairly, the athletes learn to use their other senses and their balance to score and defend.
Seremeti, who is now 49-years-old, is helping the Swedish Parasports Federation publicise the VR simulator, that they have developed with sponsors Toyota, to raise awareness among both people with disabilities and the wider general public.
"When they see me play goalball it seems like wow, does he really, is he really blind? It looks like we can see when we do our sport," he told Reuters.
"But it s very important for me to be able to show people how much, how little I actually can see," he added.
The simulator allows fans to experience the difficulty of playing football with different visual impairments such as albinism and glaucoma. With their vision patchy, blurred and at times totally non-existent, those taking part learn to trust their other senses as they try to score in a soccer goal.
The project is not only aimed at raising awareness of the challenges faced by visually-impaired athletes. Seremeti hopes through the device, athletes with similar conditions can discover other sports where their impaired sight is not a factor.
"I got introduced to goalball and parasport and that changed my life. It showed me new dreams, it gave me new ways, new power in me to actually find and to do something else in my life," he said.
