UKZN Hosts First Ever Disability Sports Day

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Shouts of ‘wicky, wicky, wicky, wickyyyy’ rang out on the Howard College campus as students were given a crash course in blind cricket at UKZN’s inaugural Sports Day for students with disabilities.

Blind cricket is played by blind, partially blind and partially sighted players using a ball containing ball bearings which allows participants to hear the ball. Players are classified according to their Visual Acuity (VA) as being either B1 (totally blind) or B2 or B3 on the basis of their VA. To add to the fun, sighted students and staff members were blind-folded and joined in, giving them the chance to experience the game.

KZN Blind Cricket hosted the session.

Disability Co-ordinator on UKZN’s Westville campus, Ms Faaiza Shaikh, said the Sports Day was held to ‘create an opportunity for students with disabilities to take part in various sporting codes and to foster social cohesion among those with disabilities’.

The Sports day also featured goalball, a Paralympic sport invented in 1946 by Austrian, Hanz Lorenzen, and German Sepp Reindle, to help rehabilitate blind war veterans.

Students had the choice of yoga, shooting basketball hoops, and table tennis. Adapted board games, including monopoly and scrabble, were also part of the fun activities.

With over 720 students with disabilities across all campuses, the University was pleased that about 60 students participated.

The event was hosted by the Disability Support Unit; the Bio-kinetics, Exercise and Leisure Science Department; the Department of Sports and Health, and the Differentially Abled Student Association.

Words and photographs: Raylene Captain-Hasthibeer