Organizations supporting blind and visually impaired athletes — with mission, contact information, and a link to each organization's official website. If you are looking for additional resources, start here.
Blind Athletes Inc
Blind Athletes Inc is a central New Jersey sport club that creates transformative opportunities and enables the pursuit of excellence for vision-impaired athletes. It believes in empowering happiness through adaptive sports, promoting fitness, friendship, and fun for athletes of all abilities, and coaches and trains competitive athletes for success in para-athletics, beep baseball, and 5K and half-marathon road races. Co-Founder and Director of Sports Jennifer Demby is a 1996 Olympian in team handball.
Contact: Jennifer Demby, Director of Sports, jennifer@blindathletes.org, phone 678-362-4560, P.O. Box 632, Wharton, NJ 07885.
Achilles International — New Jersey Chapter
Achilles International breaks down barriers to race start lines and empowers the disability community to cross the finish line. Since 1983 it has empowered more than 150,000 athletes of all ages and ability levels to take part in endurance events worldwide, and its New Jersey chapter transforms lives through athletic programs and social connection, welcoming athletes of all abilities, including people who are blind or have low vision, at weekly workouts in Rochelle Park, Cranford, Jersey City, Monmouth County, Newark, Morris County, and Rockland County.
Contact: Andrea Quaregna, aquaregna@achillesinternational.org. Main organization: info@achillesinternational.org, (212) 354-0300, 57 W 57th Street, Suite 1702, New York, NY 10019.
Achilles International official website
Achilles International New Jersey Chapter official website
EYECAN Alliance
EYECAN Alliance builds communities for blind and vision-impaired individuals to support them and their families in athletic events. Founded by David Adame, who put his son Brandon on a treadmill in 2005, this Houston running community connects blind and vision-impaired runners with guides and a supportive community.
Contact: David Adame, david@eyecanalliance.org, phone 832.418.0111.
Challenged Athletes Foundation
The Challenged Athletes Foundation exists to provide opportunity, access, and belonging for athletes with physical disabilities, because sport transforms lives. Founded in 1994, it empowers athletes by breaking down barriers and providing funding for adaptive equipment, working toward a world where every person with a physical disability can pursue athletic dreams without financial, social, or systemic barriers.
Contact: caf@challengedathletes.org, phone 858.866.0959, 9591 Waples St., San Diego, CA 92121.
Association of Blind Athletes of New Jersey
The Association of Blind Athletes of New Jersey is a nonprofit organization run in accordance with USABA that organizes blind sports in New Jersey, including goalball tournaments such as the Gunderman Classic. No formal mission or vision statement is published on its official website.
Contact: No email, phone, or address is listed on the official website. Visit the official website for the latest information and registration.
Association of Blind Athletes of New Jersey official website
IBSA, International Blind Sports Federation
The International Blind Sports Federation is in charge of a wide range of sports for athletes who are blind or partially sighted, including goalball, blind football, and judo. It believes sport is one of the best ways to promote mainstreaming and integration in society for people with a visual impairment, helping them build self-esteem and overcome adversity.
Contact: membership@ibsasport.org, office address Kurt Schumacher Strasse 22, D-53113 Bonn, Germany. No phone listed.
IBSA, International Blind Sports Federation official website
National Beep Baseball Association
The National Beep Baseball Association is committed to fostering competition and camaraderie through beep baseball for the blind and visually impaired. It organizes the sport nationally, including the annual Beep Baseball World Series.
Contact: No email or phone listed, Contact page has a form only. Address: 1400 Patriot Blvd., #290, Glenview, Illinois 60025.
National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind is the oldest and largest nationwide organization of blind Americans, founded in 1940, with affiliates, chapters, and divisions in all fifty states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Through its network of blind members, it coordinates programs, services, and resources to defend the rights of blind Americans, provide information and support to blind children and adults, and build a community that creates a future full of opportunities, because it believes in the full capacity of blind people.
Contact: nfb@nfb.org, phone 410-659-9314, 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, Maryland 21230.