Tactile Graphics for Athletic Training and Coaching

Dustin Walsh, shown in competition in the photos above,  is the sole author of the article on athletics and tactile graphics posted below. Dustin is a Canadian Paralympic athlete.  Here is a brief profile copied directly from the Canadian Paralympics webpage, where you can read more about Dustin:  http://paralympic.ca/dustin-walsh Growing up in Coquitlam B.C., Dustin Walsh participated in many sports, including athletics, cycling, and downhill skiing. After competing in the T11 400M at the 1997 Canada Summer Games, Walsh chose to focus on athletics, and joined a training group coached by Don Steen. Over the next 10 years, Steen coached Walsh to two Paralympic games, including a fifth place finish in the Athens 2004 400M, and the 2006 IPC World Championships, where he achieved a fourth place finish in the 400m. Since 2011, Walsh has been coached by Laurier Primeau, and in that time he has been a member of the 2012 Paralympic team, and the 2013 IPC World Championships. He has also lowered his Canadian record in the T11 400m to 53.00 seconds. Here is his article: Tactile Graphics for Athletic Training and Coaching, by Dustin Walsh When you stop to consider what might be among the most common pieces of corrective advice a track and field coach would offer his athletes what do you think of? For those with a background in the sport, instructions such as higher knee drive or run tall may come immediately to mind. Others less familiar with the sport might expect motivational comments such as run hard or finish strong to be more popular. As a completely blind athlete training for the...
inTACT Year in review 2014

inTACT Year in review 2014

What a perfect time and place to be writing this blog. 5:00 AM on January first. So quiet. The loudest sound is the clock ticking in the kitchen. Here in the living room, the Christmas tree is still looking robust and proud of itself. The strings of lights are unplugged but each of the fifty or so ornaments shines with its own unique significance. Oddly, these treasures include five old Thanksgiving turkey wishbones somehow saved in the box of Christmas decorations. Perfect! It’s a tree of metaphor – celebration, gratitude, memory, pride and continuation. It helps me arrange my inTACT reflections from 2014. There’s so much to celebrate. A stranger returning to our space after a year’s absence would be struck by one big change (not just one hundred square feet of new office space. ). Products! A year ago, most conversations with consumers felt like this. Them: “When?” Us: “Soon”. Now the shelves are loaded to capacity with labeled boxes of parts and materials and an inventory of inTACT Sketchpads and Erasers and packages of drawing sheets ready to ship. These past s many months the conversations have felt more like this: Customer: “We’d like to order”. Us: “How many?” Customer: “two of each”. Us: “We’ll ship Tuesday”. So much to be grateful for, most of all the blind individuals and organizations – maybe a hundred for each of the twelve days of Christmas – who confirmed with their words and their purchases that the need and the drive to draw is not limited to people with sight. So many parents and teachers to thank for deciding that...