A Team GB Blind Baseball player says more support is needed for disabled students taking part in sports at university.
David Parfett, a graduate from Liverpool Hope University who also captained the blind cricket team at the Royal National College for the Blind, believes a cooperative approach between universities would be “fantastic”.
A cross-university approach to disability sport would “help with people’s confidence and social skills, not just with keeping fit and active”.
Speaking on his own university experience, David said: “Having disabled people that understood helped with the social element, it’s a sense of being in a community.
“When you have a disability you want that community more than I think people without disabilities do but you can’t get it because you’re not accepted.”
Listen to David explain his disability here:
There are pan-disability sports groups at some universities but support for disabled people wishing to take part in sports is still lacking.
David said: “100% there should be more support for all disabled people to take part in sport at university.”
Despite not receiving all the support he needed at university, David has come a long way in blind baseball and now plays for team GB.
Whilst at university in Liverpool, he reached out to the organisation SAVI Northwest (Sports and Activities for the Visually Impaired) and joined one of their multi-sport programmes playing blind tennis, cricket and baseball.
It was whilst playing for a SAVI team that he was first identified for the UK Blind Baseball team and then later team GB.
The second edition of the WBSC Blind Baseball International Cup will take place in England later this year.
David added: “For me it’s just about being selected.
“I am actually counting, its 151 days from today until the opening day of the cup.
“I’ve got a reminder on my phone because my goal is just to be selected and then we’ll just see where we go from there.”
The competition begins on September 27 at the National Baseball and Softball Complex and Farnham Park in Buckinghamshire.
