Podcast Summary:
From the Minnesota State Capitol to the halls of the Department of Transportation, White Cane Day 2025 shined a light on independence, confidence, and community. Jeff Thompson takes listeners inside a vibrant gathering of blind athletes, adventurers, and advocates who prove that anything is possible when you step out and give it a try. From sailing the waves with Twin Cities Blind Sailing to hitting the ice with the Minnesota Wild Blind Hockey Team, throwing darts, bowling, and even playing beep baseball—there’s truly something for everyone. These programs aren’t just sports; they’re pathways to connection, growth, and fun. So whether you’ve been curious about adaptive recreation or just want to meet others who share your spirit of adventure, this episode invites you to test the waters—because independence starts with taking that first step.
Useful Links:
U.S. Blind Sailing Association
Twin Cities Blind Audio Dart League
Minnesota Millers Beep Baseball Team
Minnesota Millers Email
To find out more about the services provided at State Services for the Blind, and what they can do for you, contact Shane DeSantis at shane.desantis@state.mn.us or call Shane at 651-385-5205.
Full Transcript:
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Continuing on from White Cane Day
{Music}2025 at the State Capitol of Minnesota, once the event was winding down, all the patrons headed on down the road, navigating sidewalks and crosswalks and going into the Department of Transportation, where a special event was being held with representatives from blind sports and blind activities and even a White Cane Repair Center. So let’s kick it off with Jenny and Abdi, two orientation and mobility instructors from State Services for the Blind in Minnesota.
Jenny:
So in this room we’ve got a blind recreation fair where we have representatives from the Minneapolis Parks and Rec, we have blind sailing, all sorts of different recreation groups that some people might not know is out there. And at the far end of the room where we are, we’ve got a cane restoration station which is through an organization called U Cane Gift that sends canes all around the world to be used and maybe Abdi can speak a little bit more about that.
Abdi:
Yeah, yeah, actually I went to Cape Town South Africa because of U Cane Gift and essentially what they’re doing is they’re going around the world giving people canes, teaching them how to restore the cane and essentially delivering hope in places of the world that not too many people have. And I think that’s the most important part of the White Cane Day is all about hope. This cane, the simple thing that was invented hundreds of years ago is such a marvelous deliverance of hope that we’re just trying to celebrate that which is don’t shy away from it, use your independence, use your confidence and get out there and start walking around. So all these people coming together today to celebrate the White Cane and to celebrate hope.
Hailey:
So we are the Minneapolis City Parks. We have two tables here. On this table we have some flyers that talk about the accessibility of different parks. So there’s a giant QR code on the bottom that when you scan it, it will bring up our website and the accessibility of the parks so you can know before you go and know if the accessibility meets your needs. And then on our table to your right we have three different sheets with the key to our tactile map in both Braille and large print.
And then we made a tactile map of the entire park system and on that map it shows our recreation and programming centers, regional parks, neighborhood parks, our universal design playgrounds, lakes, community gardens, the Mississippi River and Minnehaha creek.
Katie Boyd:
Hi, I’m Katie Boyd with Twin Cities Blind Sailing and U.S. Blind Sailing Association. I am here at an event and we’re here to promote blind sailing and teach people that are blind, low vision, how to sail, how to rig, how to do whatever they want on a boat.
We do racing, we do cruising at your own pace, solo sailing. We have youth camps. We are currently trying to get it into the 2032 Paralympics. So if you’re interested in anything water, feel free to go to our website, Twin Cities Blind Sailing dot org or U.S. Blind Sailing dot org. We have Blind Sailing in Duluth, we have Blind Sailing in Colorado, New York and Jacksonville, Florida. So feel free to reach out.
Jeff:
Where there’s water, there you are.
Katie:
Exactly. If there’s water, there’s a way to sail.
Jeff:
You just did a great event up in Duluth with Duluth Lighthouse.
Katie:
Yes, yeah, the Lighthouse is great. It’s great partner. Duluth is great because you’re learning how to sail and the whole point is, you know, you don’t have to be stuck in this box of, you know, sailing. You can only sail here. You can only sail on these boats. So if you decide you want to sail on a bigger yacht, 50 foot yacht, that can happen. If you want to sail on a boat that’s 17 foot, like, you know, anything people want, it’s up to them. It’s, I feel like it’s my job to say, you know, here it is, do you want it? You know, and then we can make it happen. So, yeah, yeah.
Jeff:
Thank you for what you’re doing.
Katie:
Yeah, no, it was nice. It was nice seeing you again.
Jackson:
My name is Jackson, I play for the Minnesota Wild Blind Hockey Team. And I am a forward for the team and I am number 17 and I have been to anywhere in the country from different tournaments from St. Louis to Toronto, Canada to next month, Boston.
And it’s just a really great opportunity for visually impaired blind community to reach out and play different visually impaired sports.
Jeff:
Four years, huh?
Jackson:
Yeah, four years.
Jeff:
You like it?
Jackson:
Yeah, I love it.
MN Blind Hockey Rep:
So Blind Hockey is a great sport that blind visually impaired can play. The visual acuity is 10% or less vision. All different levels. The goalies are fully blind or blindfolded. And the other players are just all different levels of vision, but it’s really great.
All different ages, you know, youngest of five years old all the way. We have a 91-year-old player this year, so it’s phenomenal. We play out of the Blaine Super Rink. But yeah, the only difference really is that the puck itself is large in size.
It’s metal and has metal ball bearings that move across the ice so that you can hear it. So yeah, you really don’t need any vision to play this game. And yeah, we teach you how to skate. And I just think it’s a really, again, a remarkable opportunity for others that if they want to feel like they’re on a team or want to play a sport even though they thought they couldn’t, this really provides that and bridges that gap. So you know, we’re super happy to be a part of it.
Jackson here has been on the team for four seasons. We’ve gone to Canada. last year we went to Toronto to play the Canada Blind Hockey team and that was really incredible and then every year we played the Blind Hockey Classic. This year it’s in November and it’s in Boston so we’re super excited for that and yeah I mean we just get to go all over the Midwest and play different teams and play people from all over and so it’s been a really great opportunity and especially to provide that support and camaraderie for Jackson here but as a parent as well to provide the support of others we’re going through things similar to us even though it’s not directly the same condition or you know the same story I think that we really just get to connect on the same level of being a parent of a blind child and how to navigate the world a little bit differently so yeah we love it.
Jeff:
What about beginners how do they get equipped with equipment if they just want to give it a shot and try it out?
MN Blind Hockey Rep:
Yeah so we do a try blind hockey event usually the beginning of the season so we’ll probably have one here within the next month or so but yeah we provide the pads the jerseys the socks you know all the good stuff. Usually players have to provide the skates but yeah so we teach you how to skate and we provide most of the equipment it is donated to us by the Minnesota Wild team so yeah we love that you know we can provide that to players.
Jeff:
Alright, and how can they get a hold of you?
MN Blind Hockey Rep:
So you can find us on MNWildBlindHockey.com that’s our website and then you can communicate with us at the bottom there and yeah we reach out to us either way and we’d be happy to get you signed up and get you started.
Jeff:
Allwright let’s play hockey.
Mn Blind Hockey Rep:
Let’s play hockey!
Phil Sporer:
Phil Sporer
Jordan Strom:
and I’m Jordan Strom.
Phil:
We came out here to try and meet some additional blind and low vision people and maybe spark up interest for our blind audio dart league and also maybe blind bowling as well.
Jordan:
Just get the word out there that we exist.
Jeff:
You do exist you’re right here we got you on tape now.
Jordan:
That’s great.
Jeff:
Tell me about the blind dart league.
Phil:
The league itself has been around since about the mid 1980s it’s going on around 40 years now it’s a talking dartboard no different than a regular dartboard with a raised toe line for adapted positioning for even playing field everybody sighted or not is blindfolded and there are sighted people around to give a direction of where you miss your dart if you don’t hit the board.
Jeff:
And what about the bowling?
Phil:
Bowling not much different or adaptation than regular bowling other than there is a rail set up along the approach as a guide both for right-handed bowlers and left-handed bowlers if need be which there aren’t many left-handed bowlers out there.
Jordan:
No bumpers so you can get gutters which is common. Yeah but it’s still enjoyable.
Phil:
And then there are pin callers when you hit your pins somebody sighted will call out let you know what pins you still have left
Jordan:
7 10.
Jeff:
Another strike
How can they get a hold of anybody for this?
Jordan:
For darts Twin Cities Blind Audio Dart League.org and blind bowling they don’t have a website but if you go to memory lanes on a Saturday morning you can get more information about blind bowling.
Jeff:
Another adaptive sport is beep baseball and the Minnesota Millers were not able to attend this event but you can find out more about beep baseball in Minnesota at MNMillers.org that’s MNMILLERS.org They hold spring training camps for kids and actually beep baseball is for everyone whether you’re a youth adult or a senior there’s something for everyone and beep baseball is a sport that uses an adaptive ball that beeps it’s pitched to the player hits the ball and you run to the first base or the third base which has an audible sound on it.
And there’s a defense in the field too there’s lots of events all spring summer and fall they’ve even gone to the world tournaments a few times check them out on the web at MNMillers.org or send them an email at info at MNMillers.org.
Jeff:
Another adaptive sport is goalball and this is a sport that the United States has won many medals in the Paralympics Minnesota State Academy for the Blind has a team and they travel all across the Midwest playing teams of other states and it is very popular around the Minneapolis area you’ll find a lot of activity at the Courage Center here in Minneapolis so if you’re interested in getting some activity getting out in the fresh air be sure to contact the sport or activity of your interests and you can find all the links in the show notes and hopefully we’ll see you out there on the lake on the court on the field or even on the rink there’s something for everyone
Twin Cities Sailing Rep:
Yeah we had great membership this year we took a group up to Duluth as well for the first time so we’re not on the big lake which was awesome I basically just got involved with sailing and I love it so much yeah if there’s more opportunities to sail I will and more opportunities to introduce other people to sailing and that’s awesome for me.
{Music}
Jeff:
To find out more about all the programs at state services for the blind contact Shane.desantis at state.mn .us that’s Shane.desantis at state.mn.us.
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Voc Rehab and find out what they can do for you.
Live, work, read, succeed.
[Music] [Transition noise] –
When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities