- Ready? As far as you can.
One. Two. Three.
Chiefs!
[Whistle blows]
Imagine playing soccer without sight.
You don't really have time to sit there and think about, "OK, what am I gonna do?"
Each of these teens, and some of the adults on this field, are visually impaired.
- My blindness is just a part of my life.
In some ways it's kind of like hair color, you know?
It's just a part of you.
This version of the sport is adapted for people like them.
- I got it.
Voy. Voy. Voy.
Part I rely on my hearing and knowing mentally
where I am at on the soccer field is also very helpful.
For this team, this is the final game of the season,
and you'll see if they win this faceoff.
- For me, I like playing on the team because,
you know, it gives me the joy of being around my other friends.
I can always be there for others when they need me or
help out and score a goal, you know. [Laughs]
What can the sport teach us about the visually impaired,
and how does it prepare these teens to be independent people?
- We're not like a alien just ‘cause we're blind.
How often have you been injured playing the sport?
Never.
I never get injured.
[Laughs]
Luckily.
How many people have you injured?
A lot. Too many to count.
I'm in ZIP code 24401 in Staunton, Virginia,
with a very competitive 13-year-old blind soccer player named Amayah Hall.
And she's teaching me how to play her sport
the day before her team's last competition.
Now what would I do?
How would I find the ball?
You have to sweep.
And that's when you take your right foot and make big circles
and you take your left foot to make another big circle.
And you just keep doing that till you find the ball like I just did.
And one thing is, if it's not in front of you, it's always behind you.
Blind soccer is adapted for the visually impaired,
with the exception of the goalie.
The game requires all players wear eyeshades to ensure fairness.
And there are also off-field guides to assist players.
The game also uses a ball with an internal sound system so players can track it.
All these modifications make blind soccer
the most inclusive version of soccer globally.
- “Voy” is a term and in Spanish it means “go.”
Voy.
- Voy.
Voy.
- We say that so the other player knows you're coming.
So when you run into them,
it’s not like, “Oh my gosh, what are they doing?”
Amayah is one of seven students on the soccer team
at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind.
The school is one of only three in the U.S. with a youth blind soccer team.
If you want me to help I can too. [Laughs]
Yes. Amayah, please help me find this ball.
Amayah first arrived at the VSDB six years ago
after spending years in public school.
- For me, in public school and for some other people I've talked to
who are blind or visually impaired,
I wasn't really learning what I needed to be learning.
When I was in public school they kind of, like, pushed me to the side
as if I did not need to be taught what the other kids who are being taught.
It kind of frustrates me for other people who still have to deal with that.
An optic nerve disease caused blindness in Amayah’s left eye at birth,
and two years ago, at age 11, she lost the sight in her right eye.
When I lost all of my vision, it wasn't like, OK, it's getting, like, worse every single day.
I was kind of just sitting there and then it just kind of went, like, just like that.
It's a very fast thing.
It was very— it was, it was hard.
I wouldn't say I was, like, sad over it,
but I was very angry.
But I just had to learn how to adjust to things with it.
Many think of vision in extremes —
you can either see or you can't.
But you should think of visibility as a spectrum.
Some visually impaired people have light perception.
Some see only shadows.
Others have no peripheral vision or cloudy vision.
The range of visual acuity is large.
What is it like being a blind teenager?
- You kind of feel like you can't do things sometimes.
Like I see all my other friends who have vision doing things like
going out and, like, playing all these games, doing all these things,
and I'm like, “Oh, I wish I could do that.”
But some of the things I can't do because I can't see.
And then sometimes I get nervous to go and do things that I can do even though I can't see,
‘cause I'm like, "Oh people are gonna judge me,
people are gonna look at me."
But then it's also very rewarding
because you learn a lot of things
that other teenagers your age would not learn.
Amayah is part of the 3% of U.S. children who have a visual impairment.
And as the nation ages,
it expects to see the total number of visually impaired people double by 2050.
- So what we learned today...
There’s a difference between hearing and listening.
Now, how is this gonna help you when you work,
when you go to work on your jobs?
Kelli Jenkins is a legally blind teacher
who lost her sight 16 years ago because of diabetes.
- I was actually teaching and in the middle of the school year, I lost my sight.
And so I had to go through the rest of the school year with an assistant.
And from that point on, I couldn't, I couldn't do, I couldn't do what I love.
I love to teach.
Kelli didn't work for the next 13 years.
Being back in this classroom,
not only am I a teacher, I feel I am a role model.
I help my students not just with English,
but with life skills, and independence,
and being confident in being a person with visual impairment
or blindness and walking through this world.
Kelli sees confidence-building as paramount
because some in society treat blind people like they’re invisible.
- People avoid even talking to people that are blind.
I might be in a conversation with someone
and they're talking to my friend who is sighted,
and I'm standing right there like, “Hi, you can speak.”
I think it makes them uncomfortable.
Being around more visually impaired people
will help them be more comfortable.
[Taps]
Kelli believes VSDB’s blind soccer program is empowering and emboldening students.
- I love it because there are some students on the blind soccer team
who I would have never thought would even try to do sports.
And they stepped out of their comfort zone and they did it.
And I tell them all the time, it's a life skill.
That's a life skill to even step out and do something
that you didn't think you would do at all.
[Soccer ball rolls]
- "I won't be able to drive"
kind of slowly hits you when you move towards 16.
And I've always really wanted to drive,
so it's a little sad that I won't be able to.
Naomi Mills is a 14-year-old freshman who arrived here in 2021
after being home-schooled all her life.
She, like her teammate 16-year-old Jacob Warner,
told me how so much of being visually impaired
is really about becoming an expert problem solver.
- It comes with the struggles, but you know,
I work around it and problem solve.
I really enjoy, like, problem-solving and helping others where they need it.
Throughout being visually impaired, you learn so many new things as well.
For low-vision people like Naomi
and blind people like Jacob,
technology isn’t always helpful.
Disabled people in the U.S. have lower rates of technology adoption.
But could that be the result of technology advancements
failing to keep their needs in mind?
- I feel the biggest problem that I have
is a lot of touch screens.
It's hard because there's no way that we can feel the buttons.
- OK, so we've got a lot of Braille things here in front of us.
Daniel Martin is an assistive technology teacher at VSDB,
and he’s showing me how he helps students
comprehend visual presentations using Braille.
- These are the place holders or boxes on a title page in
say like PowerPoint or Google Slides.
So I created this so students could just actually
have a tactile method of feeling things.
A car accident in 1986 blinded him when he was 15 years old.
You know, I've been without sight for so long now
I sometimes forget, you know, that I did see.
You know, like, I've got to remember, you know,
wow, you know, I did see, you know, and I did have another life.
Today, technology aids for the visually impaired
are different than when Daniel was a teen,
but he says knowing the basics is still imperative.
- One thing that students and adults, whoever they are,
or even if they're just learning skills,
is to remember that, devices can fail.
You know, you may lose it or forget it.
I think it's always to remember that devices are good,
but, you know, even if you didn't have those devices,
you need to be able to kind of still be independent.
How much do you worry that the younger generation
of visually impaired people rely on technology?
I think like anything, it's a dual-edged sword.
I believe that, you know, students can be too much relied on
and say, "Oh gosh, I've got this device, and this device is gonna be my game changer in the world."
But it's also taking a step back and realizing, yeah, that device is good,
but you've got to be able to use it for an employer.
You know, employers are looking for certain skill sets.
Disabled people are less likely to be employed than those without disabilities.
Only 19% of disabled people were employed in 2021,
compared to nearly 64% of people without a disability.
And then there are the types of jobs disabled workers get.
They're much more likely to have part-time employment
than nondisabled workers.
Just realize we're human beings just like you are.
That we have the same concerns, same passions.
I think for a lot of people who have vision loss, people want opportunities.
Give folks a chance.
A lot of folks with vision loss have training, they have skills.
They just haven't been given opportunities.
What type of discrimination have you faced because of your blindness?
- Most of my discrimination has really been related to having a guide dog.
Fearful that, you know, maybe the dog's gonna do something
or maybe employers or managers
don't always know what the guidelines are, the rules and policies.
I kind of deal with those type of things.
[Clapping and music]
It’s game day and 17-year-old Nikita Razinkov and his teammates
are about to play their last match of the season against VSDB’s staff.
What does it feel like when you put those blacked-out goggles on?
- It's relaxing.
It allows my eyes to just rest.
It allows my mind to focus its efforts on other things.
Who's gonna win today?
We are, of course.
Why?
Because I said so.
[Laughs]
Nikita has good reason to be confident.
The team is 2-0.
- Shoot!
- Shoot, Naomi!
[Soccer ball rolls]
I'll call out for those who are on my team
so that they know where everyone's at,
and so that way I know.
And so that if I need to pass them the ball
or ask them to come up and assist me,
then they can do so.
This game and this school have allowed these teens to make friends
and build community in a way they hadn't been able to do before.
- I think a lot of people with disabilities think
they're very...
some of them can think that there's not a lot of people out there like them.
Like they don't meet a lot of people like themselves.
And I thought that a lot too when I was younger,
like, "Oh, I'm the only blind person I've ever met."
It's just very important to know that there's other people out there like you too.
All the teens I spoke with are the only ones in their families with a visual impairment.
And in this game, where they beat the staff 1-0,
they showed just how independent visually impaired people can be
when given the skills and opportunity to do so.
We don't really need, like, help with everything.
Sometimes people in public are a little too helpful.
That's one thing I would say to people who have sight,
to don't overhelp them, because it confuses us sometimes.
These players know this game is adapted for them
and the world in which they live is not.
One of the things that worries me is there's not always gonna be
somebody to tell you, “OK, Amayah, you need to turn around.
OK, Amaya, you're going the wrong way. You need to do this.
That's not what you're supposed to do.”
And I think just being lost is one of the things that scares me the most.
The world’s not made for blind people,
but I'm sure going to try and make it.