Movement: An introduction to the special issue

The World Health Organization (2010) has identified physical inactivity as one of the leading risk factors for global mortality. Regular movement, including during structured and unstructured activities, can have significant health-related (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014; Sallis, Prochaska, & Taylor, 2000), well-being (Hamer, Stamatakis, & Mishra, 2009; Ussher, Owen, Cook, & Whincup, 2007), and quality of life (Kawanishi & Greguol, 2013; Spengler & Woll, 2013) benefits. These benefits extend to all individuals, including those with visual impairments. Currently, it is known that youth (Augestad & Jiang, 2015; Haegele & Porretta, 2015a) and adults (Marmeleira, Laranjo, Marques, & Pereira, 2014) with visual impairments tend not to engage in recommended amounts or intensities of physical activity. There are numerous explanations for this phenomenon, including delays in motor skill development (Haegele, Brian, & Goodway, 2015; Haibach, Wagner, & Lieberman, 2014; Wagner, Haibach, & Lieberman, 2013), challenging experiences during youth in physical education or physical activity settings (Haegele, Sato, Zhu, & Avery, 2017; Haegele, Zhu, & Davis, 2016), and environmental/structural barriers that make it challenging to access physical activity environments (Jaarsma, Dekker, Koopsman, Dijkstra, & Geerstzen, 2014; Lieberman, Houston-Wilson, & Kozub, 2002). Because of this, those with visual impairments may not garner the health-related and psychological benefits of engaging in regular physical activity. Fortunately, intervention research is encouraging and demonstrates that physical activity levels can be improved among children (Cervantes & Porretta, 2013; Furtado, Allums-Featherstone, Lieberman, & Gutierrez, 2015) and adults (Ackley-Holbrook, Kang, & Morgan, 2016) with visual impairments. Since research has demonstrated that individuals with visual impairments tend to demonstrate low levels of physical activity, motor skills, and opportunities to engage in movement-based activities, it is essential that these concepts continue to be explored, examined, and manipulated through descriptive and intervention research. We believe that examining the current status of physical activity for individuals with visual impairments across the life span, and developing interventions to improve physical activity experiences, is essential to improving the quality of life of this population. Likewise, exploring how those with visual impairments experience physical activity (both structured and unstructured) from an embodied perspective can provide insight into methods to enhance these experiences (Haegele et al., 2016). Furthermore, providing evidence-based support for commonly used teaching strategies (Cieslak, Lieberman, Haibach, & Houston-Wilson, 2015; Lieberman & Linsenbigler, 2017) and physical activity products such as activity monitors (Haegele, Brian, & Wolf, in press; Haegele & Porretta, 2015b) are essential to ensuring that practices being adopted to promote physical activity are research proven. Thus, there is much work to be done to ensure that youth and adults with visual impairments are provided appropriate and successful opportunities to engage in movement-based activities. We are pleased to introduce this special theme issue of the British Journal of Visual Impairment focusing on movement. We believe this collection of research and scholarship provides further depth to our understanding of physical activity, motor skills, and sport programs for those with visual impairments. It was a pleasure receiving and discussing this research with the authors and 705265 JVI0010.1177/0264619617705265British Journal of Visual ImpairmentEditorial editorial2017