Students and faculty travel abroad to help establish a sports camp for children with visual impairments.
Empowering with Movement & Inclusion in Iceland
Students and faculty travel abroad to help establish a sports camp for children with visual impairments.
Camp Abilities is a multi-day camp for children with visual impairments that helps them get outside, get active, and learn self-advocacy. Lauren Lieberman, Distinguished Professor of Adapted Physical Education, founded the camp at Brockport in 1996. Since then, its impact has grown dramatically, extending its reach to children with visual impairments overseas to countries such as Ireland, Switzerland, Brazil, and most recently, Iceland. “I started Camp Abilities here in 1996 with 27 kids and I never expected it to get this big,” Lieberman said. “Our motto is a loss of sight, never a loss of vision.”
A team of researchers and Brockport students joined Lieberman on a trip to Iceland to begin the first Camp Abilities in the country.
“It’s an opportunity for blind and visually impaired students to come together and meet up, because there is a very low blind and visually impaired population in Iceland,” said physical education major Jack Milewczik. “In America, there are 65,000 blind or visually impaired people. Here, there’s only 150.”
Milewczik, alongside fellow physical education major Ciara Murphy, served as coaches during Camp Abilities, working one-on-one with the campers in activities such as horse riding, martial arts, and rock climbing. The camp in Iceland offered children with visual impairments an opportunity to be active and connect with kids who are just like them.
“Some of the kids have never met somebody else with a visual impairment because there are so few of them,” Murphy said. “We’re getting those kids together and showing them that they can do anything. They need to be shown that, hey, just because you have this visual impairment doesn’t mean that you can’t do this.”
“It’s important to have high expectations for students with disabilities, because the higher the expectations you have for those students, the higher outcomes they will achieve.”
Jack Milewczik
The combination of language barriers and the campers’ visual impairments created a unique challenge for the coaches and their athletes. Despite these obstacles, the coaches were able to connect with the campers, which made all the difference.
“My camper Christina started out not knowing anyone at the camp,” Murphy said. “When we did judo, she was very nervous going in and wanted to sit out. I was like ‘Hey, I’ll do it with you. We’re going to do it together,’ and she ended up loving it. She’s very strong.”
Dr. Lieberman’s Camp Abilities has helped provide SUNY Brockport students with hands-on training and skills to help make a difference for children with visual impairments both during their time at Brockport and beyond.
“It doesn’t matter where you work [in physical education]. You’re going to be working with students with disabilities all the time,” Milewczik said. “It’s important to have high expectations for students with disabilities, because the higher the expectations you have for those students, the higher outcomes they will achieve.”
Start Your Fitness Journey FAST
An Exercise Science course offers a win-win scenario every semester giving students valuable training experience and employees free training/discounted membership benefits.
Read the storyStart Your Fitness Journey FAST
A Tale of Two Perspectives
A Healthcare Administration alumna and a student forged a bond over their mutual admiration for Ireland that culminated in a chance encounter in Dublin.
Read the storyA Tale of Two Perspectives