Advocacy Talks with Vision Ireland
Welcome to Advocacy Talks from Vision Ireland. Hosted by Madeleine McNamara, Advocacy Talks aims to bring you conversations with interesting people about blindness, advocacy, and everything in between.
Contact the advocacy team at Vision Ireland by emailing campaigns@VI.ie .
Advocacy Talks with Vision Ireland
Advocacy Talks Episode 8 - Access to sport with Sean Moyles
On this episode of advocacy talks we catch up with Sean Moyles from vision sports Ireland to learn about his research into physical literacy for those with acquired visual impairments.
Sean also tells us about how he got into sport growing up, with major influence from his parents.
Have an acquired visual impairment? Complete Sean‘s survey here. https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=9G3_Y6KeI062qbTCTc4rvHW0LpBWS-9CkVP-EDCvHxtUMEtUUzJDWlJVSTBVSVkzTEI4TjlJRTFJVy4u
To get in touch with the advocacy team send an email to campaigns@vi.ie.
Welcome to Advocacy Talks, a podcast from the advocacy team at Vision Ireland. Here's what's coming up on this episode.
SPEAKER_02:And now, here's Madeleine
SPEAKER_01:McNamara.
SPEAKER_00:Hello everybody and welcome to Vision Island's Advocacy Talks. It's Madeleine here again and thank you so much for joining me today. In our last episode we were highlighting our campaign called Clear Our Paths which is about raising awareness of the temporary obstacles on our footpaths and I spoke to the wonderful Deirdre and Roisin who are service users with Vision Island and they did a great job of kind of highlighting the challenges that temporary obstacles on our footpaths pose. So if you did miss that, please do listen back. It's really well worth a listen. Well, today we're going to be talking all about sport and particularly about people who have acquired vision loss and their access to sport and how they engage with that. And to help me discuss that, I'm joined by Sean Moyles, who is the Physical Activity Coordinator with Vision Sports Ireland. And just in case he isn't busy enough doing that, he's also undertaking a Master's degree and we're going to talk about the research that he's doing as part of that. So hello Sean and welcome so much to Advocacy Talks.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks so much Madeleine, really looking forward to our chat and yeah it's great to be on. Thanks so much for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Oh you're very welcome, really good to have you on the show and really just to kick off I just thought maybe you might tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up working in Vision Sports.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so. I suppose a bit of background to myself. So I have a vision impairment myself. I have albinism and also have nystagmus with that. I would say I suppose I have quite a useful level of vision, but I suppose it's. My sensitivity, particularly with glare and light outdoors, would be quite challenging. And then obviously with the kind of fine detail in the distance. I don't know, for example, on a chart, maybe I'd get three lines or something like that, but I wouldn't be getting much past that. but I suppose it's, it's, it's, it's, yeah, I suppose that was kind of, I suppose my, uh, start of my life was I was born with that as a congenital vision impairment. Um, and then, um, I always was like absolutely mad into sports and particularly I absolutely love soccer. Fantastic. But as well, we'd be a very, I suppose our household, my mom and dad were quite young parents and both played lots of sport growing up themselves and were big about it as a key part within our household. And I think, I suppose, growing up, I found initially some of the team sports quite challenging. And it was hard, I suppose. You're trying to keep up with your peers as they start to progress and maybe their fundamental movements because they're getting a bit ahead of yours and their skill development and things. And it can be a little bit challenging. But I suppose, particularly for me, I had two things that I think really helped me. One was I had a local club that put a lot of time into me and helped me with developing my fundamental movement skills, particularly on skipping and hopping and jumping and running. And then I suppose the other part was from my father. He was a soccer coach and got me into doing my soccer coaching badges from a young age. And I started coaching my club teams at home in Mayo. And
SPEAKER_00:what age would you have been when you were doing that?
SPEAKER_02:I was probably about maybe 15 or 16.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, fantastic. And at that point then, were you still able to play soccer in a regular team or...? Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:I was still playing. Not... like just kind of recreationally it was on like kind of local teams and stuff like that and play a lot of kind of five sides indoors especially because it was that bit easier with the lack of glare and lack of light outdoors but I suppose it yeah it was it was it was that was kind of a big part for me in that I think that level of understanding what I was actually supposed to be doing and the spaces that needed to be between me and other players and things like that in my position.
SPEAKER_00:What position did you play? I
SPEAKER_02:played as a defensive midfielder. Not
SPEAKER_00:that I know what that means, but you know, people listening may have a good understanding of soccer.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Did you find that other team members had to be more aware of your, you know, obviously you had to know where you needed to be in order to receive the ball or whatever, but did they have to be aware as well in order to yeah
SPEAKER_02:I think there was a bit of understanding there I suppose as well too it was I would always ask I suppose I was very upfront about you know that I didn't have the best level of vision but I would always ask that to give me a shout or give me a call call my name or the number before the ball came to me just gives me that extra kind of in case I missed it that the pass it was coming towards me that I had that I suppose extra cue and everyone around room was always fantastic with it and like um i was lucky enough i was able to continue I played all the way up through college. I eventually went on to do, I suppose, initially my undergrad was in sports science and exercise physiology at Lone in Technological University of Shannon. And I played soccer all through that time there and continued coaching, started doing coaching badges in the GA as well at the time. And I think all of that kind of stuff was what kind of instilled that love for it for me and like I think those whether it be the fact that I got the you know that early kind of piece of um engagement and development some of my fundamental movement skills to help me and also that kind of understanding piece that gave me then the confidence to be able to um continue to stay involved and stay playing soccer and um I suppose that was a massive piece for me. I continue to still play, I suppose, recreational level soccer every now and again. And I'm also a coach with Shelburne. So I coach under 12s and under 16s. And I'm also a certain condition and performance coach with the League of Ireland teams for the under 17s and under 19s. Wow. So... I love it and I love the engagement that I get to have with it. I suppose a big part of then, I suppose. That was, I suppose, the love for it and that was always a big part of it. And then also the piece of, you know, how do I find my way with that piece of having a vision impairment in sport and how do I get myself to a point where I can be best involved and staying active and getting all the amazing benefits that you get from sport and physical activity. I think one of the biggest things for me as well whilst I was in college was the Gerard Byrne Award from the NCBI. So I was lucky enough to be one of the recipients of that award for my final two years. So third and fourth year when I was in college. And I suppose it was through that that I met some of the guys that work with Vision Ireland. I met Kevin Kelly initially for the first time there. And I met Chris White and Aaron Milanoff and Christina Miller. And I think, you know, they were massive for me, I suppose. And it was me seeing like, this is what I'm doing in sport and continue on. And when I came out of college, And I was literally, I suppose, looking to get involved in something in sport. Christina was one of the first people that I messaged. And she connected me with Padraig Healy, who is the National Sports Development Manager with Vision Sports Ireland, who I'm lucky enough to be involved with now, I think. That initial introduction was great and, you know, I was lucky enough, I came on, I suppose, the board initially as a research assistant. I then came on on, I suppose, like a graduate kind of basis then for another year after that. Yeah. And then progressed to now have the role as physical activity coordinator with them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I think that's something I'm obviously really, really passionate about. I suppose in our house alone, there's five kids and three of them have vision impairments, two of them don't have vision impairments. And so it was a busy household.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it would have been, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:It was, you know, something that obviously helping and trying to improve the lives of people with vision impairments is something that I'm obviously really passionate about. And I think sport and physical activity is one of the ways in which we can do that I think that's what kind of led me to this point here of working with Vision Sports and I hope that answered the question I think
SPEAKER_00:No absolutely brilliant I mean it's an amazing story and I think it really does you know help to highlight that you know with the right supports and the right sort of level of understanding and coaching you know it is possible for people with you know because that level of sighting is very limited sort of similar to the level I would have by the sounds of it and it's great to hear that you know I guess because your maybe because your dad was involved and with those connections that probably was very helpful but that if that's possible for you it's possible for other people you know and I know that's what Vision Sports Ireland is really working to do is to make that possible for everybody and you know which is so amazing so as you were saying you know yourself and myself actually both have what we call congenital sight loss which is you know we've had it since birth. Whereas part of your research that you're doing, so you're coaching and you're working full time and you're also doing a master's degree. So you're kind of a bit of a busy beaver, really.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I love to keep myself busy.
SPEAKER_00:So tell us a bit about the research that you're doing as part of that degree.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I suppose I made a decision last year that I was going to go back and look at a interested in, I suppose, learning more about the area that I had been working in. I had came from, I suppose, as I said, that work in a sports science, exercise physiology kind of background and maybe knew more when it came to, I suppose, elite sports and testing and how to make the body, you know, as high performing as possible. possible and how all those kinds of parts can play into it. I suppose I wasn't as upskilled in the research that was out there around vision impairment and around I suppose, activity levels and engagement in sport activity. So I went back and I decided this was something I was going to pursue. As part of that, I looked into lots of different masters and I landed on one, which was the Masters in Elite Sport Performance in DCU. And I suppose the name of that might sound like it's still elite performance sport, but it's really not. I suppose it's about, and the way that the course coordinators and lecturers would speak about it is it's about being, you know, finding the elite level in your specific domain.
SPEAKER_00:So is it kind of like sort of saying how to find your best? So whatever level your best would be, it's about finding that, is it? Some people are going to be able to be professionals, but most of us are just going to be amateurs doing what we want. And is it about kind of enabling everyone to reach their potential, I suppose?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. So I suppose it's about getting to an elite level of understanding in your specific field. So I suppose with me, it'd be that... trying to understand as best as possible which where the current research is um what uh are the barriers and facilitators and what are the i suppose current models that have existed um either in mainstream populations and disability populations or in other countries have been tried specifically within vision impairment okay um i suppose one piece within that then that I was particularly interested in and was something I suppose I think it was something that struck me when I came into vision sports firstly I like to say you know I came in and I thought you know I have vision impairment and I'm big into sports and I know loads about this and I'm definitely not afraid to say I knew absolutely nothing but which you know it was a lot of learning at the beginning and one thing I suppose that particularly struck me was around people with acquired vision impairments and it something I was very fascinated by, particularly around their engagement with sport and physical activity. So that's what I've decided to look at. I decided
SPEAKER_00:to look at... So just to clarify for people, acquired is where people have, as it says in the name, got a vision impairment at a later stage in life. So not born with it, really.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's correct. And that might be, you know, a number of different conditions. That may have onset later and could be anywhere. From young age. All the way up into. Kind of older adult populations. And I suppose. As part of that, so I kind of went into this piece of. Experiences and perceptions of people with acquired vision impairments engaged in sport and physical activity. And I looked at that kind of particularly from a lens of a. of a concept called physical literacy. And I suppose physical literacy in Ireland, we're lucky enough that we have our own consensus statement around physical literacy, which is one of the first countries in the world to have it. And I suppose what it essentially is, is it's kind of three main areas. It's the physical competence, which is, I suppose, the ability to perform a skill, whether it be a hop, jump, throw, skip. It's the motivation and confidence to be able to do that skill.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And then it's also the knowledge and understanding. So it's how all of those kind of three areas that motivation, confidence, knowledge, understanding and physical competence come together to make someone successful. be able to effectively perform a skill or an action or get involved in sport and physical activity. And I found that fascinating. I just think it resonated so much with me from my experiences from a young age, like that piece where I said, you know, I kind of got a little bit of help in terms of my fundamental movement skills and helped develop them at a young age. I think that was the competence piece. I think the coaching and engagement in sport was that understanding piece and definitely continuing on then into the education and research side of it. And then also, I think, well, I think maybe the motivation and confidence might have been the one for me that never really thought that I was always maybe maybe overconfident and thinking we're doing these things. But yeah, I think I think that's why I was so I think that's why I was so interested in that area of study. I think that's something that has been used to great success in recent years in mainstream populations and other disability populations, but maybe isn't looked at as strongly in terms of the blind and vision impaired populations. So I suppose we're right in the middle of it at the moment. So I can't make any assumptions
SPEAKER_00:yet. No, you can't tell us what the findings are yet. No. because I'm curious yeah to think you know because I'm just in my own mind I'm thinking you know presumably you know someone might have had good physical literacy before they lost their sight and then you know that's kind of all gone maybe or other people who maybe weren't sporty at all and then you know lose their sight and maybe trying to find things to do and get back in and then do sport you know so I suppose it's maybe going to be different isn't it for different people
SPEAKER_02:exactly and I suppose it's so often fascinating I suppose just to see you know especially at that point of diagnosis for someone who is losing their vision I suppose one of the key parts I'm trying to see is you know is it that piece of knowledge and understanding is lacking in terms of what we can engage with in terms of maybe it's different adapted sports maybe it's getting ourselves on a pathway where we get into a vision sports program and then move into a mainstream program maybe it's or maybe it's motivation, confidence, and maybe because of the vision loss, it's something that we then struggle with. Maybe it's purely a skill piece and it's physical competence, but whatever it comes back and whatever we look to move forward with across the next, I suppose, coming years, it's going to be fascinating and it's something that I hope we can use the research to really help inform, I suppose, where we go school as an organization and. hopefully where we can help as many people as possible with who are blind or vision impaired and get involved in sport and physical activity.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, we're always being told and it's, you know, well known that the benefits of sort of daily activity, you know, whether that be physically benefits, but also the emotional and mental health benefits as well, I think are so powerful, aren't they? And I think it's just so important to give people that opportunity to be part of that energy you say knowledge is is so important because if people don't know what's available then they can't partake of it so you know it's going to be a key thing i was kind of interested in you know some people might have been involved in one sport and i know speaking to somebody i can't remember who it was but they had been say i don't know whether it was tennis or something and they'd play tennis as a sighted person but then you know even though there is adaptive tennis they didn't want to do it you know because they had been good at it as a sighted person it was something that they didn't want to do you know, in a different way, having lost their sight. But then for other people, they might want to still be able to do the sport they love. But I suppose it's maybe for that person or for other people trying to sort of identify other sports. It might be, you know, the chance to try something new, which I think is interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. I like, they're so... you know, I suppose there's so many different sports out there and everyone has, like, in our house alone at home, you know, there's five kids, everyone is into something different, whether it be soccer or rugby or Gaelic or rowing or athletics. Everyone is into something different. And, you know, so often, I suppose, we can have that bit of a fear of, I suppose, what is it going to be like going back now that that I have less vision or no vision. And I suppose that is a piece of the motivation and confidence and something that we will look to challenge as time goes on in terms of, I suppose, increasing people's motivation, confidence or knowledge and strength or whatever that may happen to be. Like I know as well, when you mentioned a moment ago about like you know how important it is for us all to be I suppose physically active and engaging like the numbers currently for people who are blind or vision impaired are quite low I know it's one in ten adults who are blind or vision impaired and one in five children that are meeting our well the World Health Organization's physical activity guidelines and like that's leaving them at a greater risk of poor health or reduced motor skills or you know social isolation and like there's so many parts to come with sport and physical activity
SPEAKER_00:um yeah
SPEAKER_02:and you know we want to see those numbers improve we want to you know make these as the bridges and the and the pathways to people being able to do that
SPEAKER_00:yeah absolutely and i know you know you're doing fantastic work there in vision sports with all of the different kind of avenues that you're following really to make that possible whether it be through the kind of you know adapted um sports you know such as you know the blind tennis or um i was going to say golf but she isn't well it's kind of adapted but not adapted isn't it you know you're still playing golf the same way but you just maybe need a bit of support
SPEAKER_02:yeah it's having that guide and like there's so there's so many different parts that um go into like every every sport is going to be different in terms of what someone who is blind vision impaired requires and needs and you know we're lucky enough to envision sports that we have you know some fantastic collaborations with lots of different national government bodies so whether it be the FAI and our blind football and kind of vision impaired soccer or futsal groups or whether it be Golf Ireland who you know are out and helping us set up different programs and different resources currently for sighted guides and people getting out and getting into golf or whether it's you know or tennis or swimming or athletics these are all you know different adaptations in every one but it's made possible I suppose both by all of my colleagues in vision sports but also all of the different people that we collaborate with in those national governor bodies and local sports partnerships and um all those different groups and even um there's a particularly great hub down in port leash and it's all made possible by the vip hub down there and their coordinator tracy percy who's fantastic as well
SPEAKER_00:yes i'm always seeing stuff on your newsletter and portly i should be in port leash as well as going
SPEAKER_02:on there yeah yeah
SPEAKER_00:i'm gonna get some of that where i am
SPEAKER_02:it's it's it's the it's the first of its kind um i So it is that hub model and Tracy is fantastic. And I suppose we have such a great array of different sports available down there as a result. And I suppose that's part of a collaboration with ourselves, all the governing bodies, local sports partnership down there in Leash and that VIP hub. And Tracy initially was just a volunteer who gave up so much time and put so much work work into you know establishing and like you know we'd love to we'd love to have more you know we try and run programs all across the country and me as a proud man from the west in Mayo it's great like I want to see programs all across the country but it's I suppose how can we embed them and get people in the different clubs that are already existing out there to take part become a skill with the knowledge and understanding to how to coach and work with someone who is blind or vision impaired to be able to go out and you know establish them programs in their counties and in their countries like um you know i know the tennis is um loads of different programs all across the country and um similar with the we've lots of swimming programs all across the country but um we're we're slowly i suppose getting buy-in from all those different coaches and getting them upskilled and hopefully that will continue um particularly with our new upcoming strategic plan and strategic cycle, I think it's going to be great and we'll be able to push towards getting people upskilled in their communities and hopefully getting more people into sport and physical activity.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. It'll be exciting to see what the future holds. And as you say, there's so much going on already, but you can only improve. It is fantastic, all the work that you're doing there. Just, I suppose, going back to the research, your survey, you basically are doing a survey trying to get sort of information, I suppose, from people with acquired, you know, blindness or vision impairment. And that survey is still open, I believe, is it?
SPEAKER_02:It is still open, yeah. So I suppose we're going to, our plan with the survey, it's the first part of a two-part piece of research. So we're initially going to work with the survey and our The aim is to try and get as close to 100 participants in that survey as possible. I'm currently at 43, so we're as many as possible that are listening today. Yes, come on people,
SPEAKER_00:finish your survey. And how could people do that? How can people access the survey if they want to complete it?
SPEAKER_02:So it's available on our website currently. It also goes out in our newsletter and across our socials if you're following any division sports. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:and your website would be what? Vision, is it, what is it? Vision Sports?
SPEAKER_02:VisionSports.ie.
SPEAKER_00:VisionSports.ie. That's correct. Yeah, so VisionSports.ie. It's nice and easy to remember, hopefully, that one. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:and it's in there. It's under the News and Events tab, and it's under, you can click on it in under News, and it comes up there for you. As well, I suppose, if anyone is here and they are interested, and you're looking for the link, or you haven't... been able to find it. My email address is sean.moyles at visionsports.ie and the Moyles is M-O-Y-L-E-S. So anyone that wants to email me, I'm absolutely more than happy to answer any questions or send across links or, you know, send you any information that you'd like about it. Or, you know, if you're maybe not sure if you're eligible or at the dash, I suppose it's open to adults aged 18 to 64 is one key piece for it. and it's for acquired vision impairments. So that's that. any kind of condition which has onset at a certain point, whether that be a childhood, teenage years or adulthood, or as we age into older adult ages, that 18 to 64. Oh,
SPEAKER_00:fantastic. So hopefully now we're going to get loads now of new responses following this amazing chat that we've had. And, you know, I think when people can really hear the kind of difference it can make, because it's going to give you the information, hopefully, to make it, you know, more improved in in you know access to getting people out there and moving which is what we want um so you know please do do do complete that survey if you if you can i would complete it but i can't sorry i don't qualify yeah um so yeah you know over to over to everybody else but also you know just if people are on the website and they can also sign up for your you know newsletter and all of those things because again information is power
SPEAKER_02:yeah 100% So I suppose if you are interested in that, I suppose the first thing I would say to you is on our homepage, we have a Become a Member button. If you sign up to become a member, you can click to be added to the newsletter. And then it's also, if there's a bar across the top, you can click Support Us. And under there, there's also another button to become a member. Either way, it'll bring you there, but it's just...
SPEAKER_00:And becoming a member is free, isn't it? There's no charge or anything.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely free, yeah. No charge, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so... good we always like three you know that's always good
SPEAKER_02:yeah 100% but I suppose it just means you get the information and I suppose be kept in the loop about what we're doing and what's happening in the all across the country of Ireland for that month
SPEAKER_00:oh fantastic no that's brilliant thank you so much Sean it's been so interesting talking to you today really fascinating to hear about you know all your sporting abilities and achievements it's wonderful and you know you're doing fantastic work there with everything you're doing in Vision Sports Ireland so thank you so much really do appreciate it well that's us for today but if you know you want to obviously we mentioned the visionsports.ie website there but if you want any support or anything from Vision Ireland you can always log on to our website which is www.vi.ie or you can call our information line at 1-800-911-250 lovely chat to Bye everyone.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks for listening to Advocacy Talks. To get in touch with our advocacy team, send us an email to campaigns at vi.ie or why not join one of our local advocacy networks where you can work together with others to solve some of the biggest problems facing blind and partially sighted people in Ireland. Thanks for listening and see you next time.