“A healthy mind in a healthy body” – the popular adage, often ascribed to the Roman poet, Juvenal – underscores the benefits of exercise to our physical, psychological and emotional well-being. Nevertheless, there are still too many fitness professionals who equate visual impairment with physical disability. As a rule, this is a flawed perception.

Blind and visually impaired athletes and sports enthusiasts compete and train daily alongside sighted people the world over. And in 2016, for the first time in Israel, a blind distance runner and graduate of the Wingate Institute, Beza Nababa, was hired to teach physical education to sighted children at a school in Ra’anana.

At first blush, the fitness center at Jerusalem’s JEWISH INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND, which serves both sighted and visually impaired members, looks like any well-designed and properly maintained gym. But the attention to detail is what sets this facility apart. From bright floor markings and extra space between stations, allowing for easy and safe access, to tactile solutions for operating and adjusting the machines, this facility exemplifies what can and should be the industry standard.

The solutions are, in fact, brilliant in their simplicity.

And all can be readily adapted to any gym in Israel.