Introduction: Dancing has a positive effect on both body and mind. The visually impaired are less physically active and spend more time performing sedentary activities. There are many obstacles the visually impaired have to face when trying to learn to dance. Most dance classes rely heavily on visual information, i.e. explaining the steps while demonstrating. The visually impaired cannot see and follow along to the dance instructors' demonstration, which can lead to the person falling behind the rest of the class, being excluded or even unable to join the class. Purpose: The purpose of this undergraduate thesis is to determine why the visually impaired choose dance as their leisure time activity, what obstacles they face when dancing, which strategies and adaptations can be implemented to enable and facilitate learning how to dance what are the psychological, physical and social effects of dancing. Methods: The data for the qualitative research was obtained with in-depth interviews conducted with 6 individuals about their experience with dance, mainly with the adaptive dance workshops that were organized for the purposes of this undergraduate thesis. The data the interviews yielded was then processed with qualitative text analysis. Results: The blind and the visually impaired choose dance as their leisure time activity because they wish to learn the know-how of dancing. It also gives them a sense of happiness and provides an opportunity for them to socialize. We have determined management and intervention strategies for facilitating the learning process of dancing for people with a visual impairment, and for overcoming the obstacles they encounter. Dancing is psychologically, physically and socially beneficial for people with a visual impairment. Discussion and Conclusion: Dance as a leisure time activity that majorly contributes to the quality of life, social inclusion and provides an active way of spending leisure time for the blind and visually impaired. Occupational therapists enable individuals to participate in a desired activity, explore its purpose, inform them and find adequate methods for carrying out the activity. For the successful integration of the blind and visually impaired in dance activities, certain adaptations have to be made due to their inability to process visual information which often results in the inability to follow regular dance classes.
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