Contribution de l'activité physique et sportive au bien-être des personnes déficientes visuelles

Aims: Contribution of the physical activity on the improvement of the quality of life of visually impaired people. Current knowledge: Physical activities and sports accessible to visually impaired people are numerous; motivations and aptitudes of individuals are also numerous. This heterogeneity has gendered classification scales as varied as the objectives: classification of the disability according to the laws, aptitudes in using the spare vision, pedagogical adaptations needed for learning, categories based on acuity or visual angle in sport in order to ensure the equal footing in games and competitions. Major difficulties in practicing a physical activity are the environment and motor perception of the most efficient movement. These elements determine the autonomy of the visually impaired persons and are based on the sensorial compensations and the mental integration of perceptions. The major supplying perceptions used in physical activity are: hearing: gives information on distance, direction, field and depth of perception ; touch: gives a perception of the objects close at hand by making a synthesis of fragmentary feelings and therefore a slowly making acquainted ; kinesthesis and proprioceptive memory: body segments perception in space plays in important role in motor programming. Learning of a sport movement needs an internal perception of body segments and a proprioceptive feedback. Several investigations have stressed the positive influence of sport practice in proprioceptive memory. On the other hand, research on plasticity of sensorial areas in the brain suggests a functional reorganisation in the brain of born blind subjects. The visual cortex which has been considered as "dead" in early blindness, should be used for processing the hearing, tactile and muscular information. This field of research genders investigations on pedagogical adaptations in order to use sensorial ways sometimes neglected in the psychomotor development of visually impaired children; many physical aptitudes are missing: fitness, malformations. Conclusion: Adapted physical activities and sports work towards several ends: psychomotor education, development or improvement of motor aptitudes, fitness, performance, victory over blindness. But first of all, adaptations will increase the use of sensorial supplies in order to build and create the images and ideas of the world. Sport practice has to improve the well-being, the perception of self-competence and self esteem and preserve from handicap. © 2006.SCOPUS: sh.j