{"id":1203,"date":"2025-12-03T08:34:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T08:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/?p=1203"},"modified":"2025-12-03T08:34:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T08:34:45","slug":"kent-hosts-first-ever-visually-impaired-tennis-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/2025\/12\/03\/kent-hosts-first-ever-visually-impaired-tennis-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent hosts first-ever visually impaired tennis session"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Kent launched its very first <strong>tennis session for visually impaired students and staff<\/strong>! This event was a fantastic step toward making sports and activities at Kent more accessible, and it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time, as we mark <strong><u><a href=\"https:\/\/eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstudent.kent.ac.uk%2Flife%2Fcelebrating-diversity%2Fdhm&amp;data=05%7C02%7CA.C.Burnett%40kent.ac.uk%7C79555e6162b34130dca008de3245900e%7C51a9fa563f32449aa7213e3f49aa5e9a%7C0%7C0%7C639003471564217442%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=i4l6gU0m%2BuWqZq9bZaCqo%2FYs6xGkQ49hS2XEUQtYvY4%3D&amp;reserved=0\">Disability History Month<\/a><\/u><\/strong><u><a href=\"https:\/\/eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstudent.kent.ac.uk%2Flife%2Fcelebrating-diversity%2Fdhm&amp;data=05%7C02%7CA.C.Burnett%40kent.ac.uk%7C79555e6162b34130dca008de3245900e%7C51a9fa563f32449aa7213e3f49aa5e9a%7C0%7C0%7C639003471564256455%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=AaUiI7frBY1zNpbTOU7M8YGpw4zeWXAiaWaL0KM6DYE%3D&amp;reserved=0\">.<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n<p>This initiative is a joint effort between Fran Crump from Student Support and Wellbeing and Nick Skelton from Kent Sport. Their goal? To provide a fun, inclusive sporting experience that supports the health and wellbeing of students and staff with visual impairments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The session, led by Nick Skelton, the University\u2019s Tennis Development Lead, featured clever adaptations to make the game accessible:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sound balls<\/strong>\u00a0that make noise so players can track them by hearing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Raised court markers<\/strong>\u00a0that players can feel for orientation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Smaller courts and nets<\/strong>\u00a0for easier play.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Activities were tailored to each participant, ensuring the right level of challenge and plenty of enjoyment. Players also learned skills like recognising and reacting to the sound and speed of the ball.<\/p>\n<p>The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and there are plans to expand these sessions to more students and staff. There may even be opportunities for sighted players to join in the fun using blindfolds!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Want to get involved?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019d like more details or want to give a session a try, contact:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fran Crump<\/strong>: <a href=\"mailto:f.crump@kent.ac.uk\">f.crump@kent.ac.uk<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Nick Skelton<\/strong>: <a href=\"mailto:n.skelton@kent.ac.uk\">n.skelton@kent.ac.uk<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Kent launched its very first tennis session for visually impaired students and staff! This event was a fantastic step toward making sports and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/2025\/12\/03\/kent-hosts-first-ever-visually-impaired-tennis-session\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24530,"featured_media":1205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[312383,183846,312220],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1204,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions\/1204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}