Background/Purpose Participation in physical activity can lead to better health, more social interaction, and better physical coordination for youth with visual impairment. However, these youth tend to lead a more sedentary lifestyle than their peers without a disability because they experience additional barriers to physical activity such as over protection and low motivation. One method to overcome the barriers to physical activity is the use of exergames, interactive electronic video games that use a physical activity as input. The purpose of this study is to determine if exergames are a practical method to engage youth with a visual impairment in physical activity.
Method Twenty-four youth with a wide spectrum of visual impairments ranging from B1 to B3 classification participated in this study. Youth played Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and EyeToy Kinetic at their leisure and try them as many times as desired over a one week period. Individual experiences were captured using, semi-structured interviews that were transcribed verbatim by a two reserchers.
Analysis/Results Participants expressed positive feelings toward playing the exergames. Thematic analysis revealed several themes reflecting usability, social inclusion and feelings of competence.
Conclusions Youth with a visual impairment successfully engaged in being physically active using the two exergames, DDR and EyeToy Kinetic. Additionally, participants expressed positive feelings towards exergaming indicating that commercially available game systems could be a valuable tool for children with visual impairments to enhance participation in physical activity.
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