Dan Guilbeault was 3 when doctors discovered a tumor called an optic glioma pressed against his optic nerves. He continued to play the sports he loved — basketball, baseball and football — until he lost most of his sight at 11.
MultimediaNow he is 19 and almost completely blind, and his favorite sport is tennis.
When he first heard about tennis for the visually impaired, his reaction was “No way!†he said. “I was skeptical.â€
So were faculty members at the Perkins School for the Blind here, when a sighted student from nearby Newton proposed it nearly two years ago. But Perkins, known for athletic innovations like adapted fencing, decided to offer what are believed to be the first blind tennis classes in the country.
Photo by Mike Flippo/ShutterStock.