PLAYER ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

CANADIAN BLIND HOCKEY DOMESTIC COMPETITION

Canadian Blind Hockey recognizes that players who have slightly too much vision to meet the criteria of legally blind may still in fact be visually impaired and unable to play hockey with sighted players and a traditional puck.  As such we have expanded our visual criteria to play in the Open division to match the Quebec Ministry of Health’s definition of visually impaired, which is similar to the United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) B4 category.  Players who meet the following criteria or less may also compete in the event:

  • a visual acuity of less than 6/21;
  • a continuous visual field of less than 60°, including the central fixation point measured horizontally or vertically;
  • complete hemianopia.

INTERNATIONAL BLIND SPORTS FEDERATION (IBSA) CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

For competitive Blind Hockey, all athletes must comply with the International Blind Sports Federation’s (IBSA) classification eligibility standards. In the IBSA classification system, an athlete who is blind or partially sighted is classed as either a B1 – no vision, a B2 – approximately 5% functional vision or less, or a B3 – 10% functional vision or less.

Eligibility

Class B1
No light perception in either eye up to light perception, but inability to recognize the shape of a hand at any distance or in any direction.

Class B2
From ability to recognize the shape of a hand up to visual acuity of 20/600 and/or a visual field of less than 5 degrees in the best eye with the best practical eye correction.

Class B3
From visual acuity above 20/600 and up to visual acuity of 20/200 and/or a visual field of less than 20 degrees and more than 5 degrees in the best eye with the best practical eye correction.