Skills camps for the visually impaired, the blind and the people with integrated visual and auditory impairment

From 11th-13th October, the Blind Association, Sjónstöðin, Íþróttafélag fatlaðra and Reykjadalur, under the guidance of the University of Reykjavík, will hold skills camps for children and young people aged 9 to 25 years (note that the camps will be divided according to the age of the participants).

The camp will be held in Reykjadalur and food and accommodation will be offered, but you can also participate without staying. The cost for each participant is 5000 ISK.

To keep the skills camps in place, we have hired the camp’s founder, Lauren Lieberman, and guests from the United States to lead them along with Inga Þór from HR and Kaisa from Blindrafélagið. They have visited the camps in the United States to bring the ideology back to Iceland.

What are skills camps?

Skills camps are primarily about empowering participants. They give children and young people who are blind/sight-impaired/with integrated vision and hearing impairment the opportunity to get started in various sports or games that they would not have had the opportunity to try otherwise. The work is done with the individual person on person and participants are given the opportunity to choose their own challenges. At the same time, a skill assessment is carried out that will be handled by the University of Reykjavík. The skill assessment can then be used in ongoing training, e.g. with sports teachers.

Those interested in participating in the camp are asked to send a post to the camp, stating the name and birth year of the participants, telephone number where they can be contacted and e-mail address.

There are not many places available, so interested parties are asked to register as soon as possible. Confirmation of participation will then be made before August 31.

Camp supervisors

Ingi Þór is a lecturer at the University of Reykjavík and has worked with athletes with multiple disabilities for many years, written a book chapter on sports for individuals with disabilities in Iceland and conducted research.

Kaisu Hynninen has been visually impaired her whole life. Kaisu has played goal-kicking in the Finnish national team since 2009 and worked in a summer camp for blind and visually impaired young people in Finland. Kaisu has about 20 years of experience in different teaching professions and is in advanced training to become a music teacher.

Lauren Lieberman holds a PhD in sports science from the University of Oregon in the US with a focus on teaching children with sensory problems. Lauren has co-authored a number of books on adapted sports instruction, or all-inclusive sports instruction.

Camp abilities: