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Visual input significantly affects kinesthesis skills and, hence, visually impaired individuals show less developed sensorimotor control, especially in an unfamiliar outdoor environment. Regular blind baseball practice can counteract such a deficit but, given the complex kinetic chain model required, a targeted workout proposal is needed to improve the main athletic gesture performance. On these premises, we investigated, for the first time, the running and pitching performance of a competitive Italian blind baseball team through quantitative tools and parameters such as Libra Easytech sensorized proprioceptive board, goniometric active range of motion, chronometric speed, and pitching linear length. Moreover, the perceived physical exertion was assessed by the Borg CR10 scale. Consequently, an adapted athletic training protocol was designed and tested on the field during the competitive season, with the aim to strengthen sport specific-gesture coordination and efficacy as well as to prevent injuries. Quantitative assessments showed an improvement in ankle stability index, bilateral upper limb and hip mobility, reactive agility, running braking phase control during second base approaching, and auditory target-related pitching accuracy along with a decrease in perceived physical exertion. This protocol might therefore represent an effective and easily reproducible training and evaluation approach to tailor management of visually impaired baseball players, and safely improve their athletic performance under the supervision of an adapted exercise specialist.

Accessibility to housing is crucial for people with disabilities as it provides them with equal opportunities and allows them to live independently. A systematic literature review has been conducted to understand the current research on accessibility in housing for people with disabilities in Latin America. The study analysed 56 papers and used co-word analysis to identify common themes and topics within the documents. The results of the analysis showed that Brazil (61%) is the country with the most research on the subject, physical disability, at 36%, is the impairment most analysed, and interventions or analysis for the older people (45%) in their homes is the most researched type of population. The co-word analysis revealed that topics such as policy, regulations, the use of technologies, ergonomics interventions, and architectural criteria or barriers to the daily life of disabled people were frequently discussed in the papers. Although this work shows a substantial and growing increase in research on housing for people with disabilities in Latin America, it also demonstrates the importance of increasing research on other types of impairment, such as visual and cognitive-intellectual disabilities, and including children, caregivers, or even young adults.

Sport practice has the widely demonstrated potential of promoting well-being and physical/mental health, especially in disabled individuals. Nowadays, visually impaired people can participate in several sports commonly adapted and played substituting visual input with auditory or tactile ones. By integrating movement and music, dance can simultaneously promote physical and emotional involvement and enhances vicarious sense recruitment. On these premises, we performed a survey to assess the psychological well-being (PWB) and quality of life (QoL) in visually impaired athletes, comparing dancesport vs other sound input-based sports. Twenty-one visually impaired dancers and twenty-seven visually impaired athletes practicing adapted baseball, showdown, blind futsal, or blind tennis completed a structured self-report survey including the Italian version of PWB-18 scale and the Short Form-12 (SF-12) questionnaire. Dancers reported significantly higher scores in PWB-18 autonomy, environmental mastery, and self-acceptance along with a higher PWB total score than the other athlete group. Similarly, the SF-12 questionnaire results demonstrated significantly higher scores in both physical and mental QoL of visually impaired dancers compared with other athletes. In conclusion, our findings suggest that, given its peculiarities, the practice of dancesport may have a stronger positive impact on PWB and QoL of visually impaired individuals than other sound input-based sports.

People with visual impairment have greater difficulty in accessing physical activity and sport, and a lack of social interaction is also associated with a risk of exclusion. Work is currently being done to include people with visual impairment through physical activity and sport. However, there is a lack of studies examining the status and overall effectiveness of interventions in the pre- and post-COVID stage. This study aimed to provide solid evidence on the characteristics and effectiveness of interventions for the inclusion of people with visual impairment through physical activity and sport in order to address the need for dissemination on this topic. The bibliographic search was carried out with the words "Physical activity", "Physical exercise", "Sport", "Physical training", "visual disability", "visual impairment" and "inclusion" in the databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar from 2018 to 2021.The article selection process was according to the PRISMA protocol with a final selection of nine articles. The main results highlighted that the programmes improve the perception of people with disabilities, increase social skills and health and increase the social importance of people with disabilities in the social environment. Among the most generalised conclusions were the need for specialised training, the need for social inclusion and participation of people with visual impairment in their environments and increased physical activity.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed radical behavioral and social changes in the general population, significantly impacting the lives of individuals affected by disabilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on non-institutionalized subjects with sensorineural disabilities during the first COVID-19 wave in Italy., Methods: A 39-item online national survey was disseminated from 1 April 2020 to 31 June 2020 via social media throughout Italy to communities of individuals with proven severe sensorineural disabilities, affiliated to five national patient associations. The survey collected extensive information on the socio-demographic profile, health, everyday activities, and lifestyle of individuals with hearing and visual disabilities., Results: One hundred and sixty-three respondents with hearing (66.9%) and visual (33.1%) disabilities returned a usable questionnaire. The mean age of interviewees was 38.4 ± 20.2 years and 56.3% of them were females. Despite the vast majority of respondents (77.9%) perceiving their health status as unchanged (68.8% of interviewees with hearing deficits vs. 96.3% of those with visual impairments), about half the interviewees reported sleep disorders during lock-down, more likely those with visual deficits. Remote services were seemingly more effective for business than school activities. Furthermore, although just 18.8% of respondents rated remote rehabilitation care unsatisfactory, only 12.8% of interviewees felt supported by health and social services during the COVID-19 emergency. The vast majority of respondents were concerned about the future and the risk of SARS-CoV-2 contagion, particularly individuals with hearing impairments. Among the various risk mitigation measures, facemasks caused the greatest discomfort due to communication barriers, particularly among interviewees affected by hearing disabilities (92.2% vs. 45.7%). The most common request (46.5%) of respondents to reduce the inconveniences of the COVID-19 emergency country lock-down was improving the access to and delivery of health and social services for individuals with sensorineural disabilities (19.3%), followed by the use of transparent masks (17.5%)., Conclusions: Although health protection measures such as face masks and social distancing play a key role in preventing and controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the unmet needs of disabled individuals should be carefully considered, especially those affected by sensory disabilities. Tailored access to health and social services for individuals affected by sensorineural disabilities should be implemented. Additional actions should include the use of to face masks to reduce communication barriers linked to hearing-impairment, as well as the improvement of remote services, especially distance learning at school.

This article presents the expectations of visually impaired people with regard to the content of a set of sound exercises planned for implementation, which will mainly enable these people to become familiar with the sounds associated with specific life situations. Consultations were carried out with 20 people with visual impairment, which allowed for the recognition of the needs of these people regarding the sounds with which they wish to become acquainted. The 35 initially proposed sounds were assessed using a five-grade scale. These sounds included those that would be heard in a number of situations in which a person with a visual impairment could potentially be found, both at home and, for example, while in the street or at an office. During the consultations, people with visual impairment usually rated the sounds proposed for inclusion in the set of sound exercises as highly relevant or relevant. In most cases, the assessment was analogous regardless of whether the person had a visual impairment since birth or developed it relatively recently. There were also more than 100 sounds that were proposed for inclusion in the set. The results of the consultation demonstrate how important the information contained in sound is for people with visual impairment.