European Journal of Adapted Physical Activity 18, 20 (2025) | DOI: 10.5507/euj.2025.014

Surveying guided sports– Understanding practices and experiences of blind, partially sighted and deafblind sportspeople, and sighted guides

Marit Hiemstra1*, Christopher R. Matthews1
1 School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom

To date, the practices and experiences of participants in guided sports– physical activities involving people with sight loss and sighted guides – have been predominantly researched in small-scale, ethnographic studies. While these studies offer an important first step in detailing often powerful, compelling and personal stories, they are also limited by the potential for producing findings that only reflect ‘part of the broader story’. As a second step to build on these accounts, this paper explores practices and experiences of a wider group of guided sport participants (n=56) through an online qualitative survey. The findings offer insights into why people engage in such activities, how they typically connect with one another and what their experiences are like when practicing sports together. The data contains numerical and open-ended responses, which were analysed descriptively and thematically. Based on this, we suggest future steps for research which extends this work and will help those involved in organising and promoting guided sports and enhance their efforts to make such activities more enjoyable, inclusive and accessible.

Keywords: sporting partnerships; collaborative sports; sight loss; qualitative

Received: December 12, 2024; Revised: May 29, 2025; Accepted: August 20, 2025; Published online: October 27, 2026  Show citation

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Hiemstra, M., & Matthews, C.R. (2025). Surveying guided sports– Understanding practices and experiences of blind, partially sighted and deafblind sportspeople, and sighted guides. European Journal of Adapted Physical Activity, 18, Article 20. https://doi.org/10.5507/euj.2025.014
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