Screenshot of opening news reel featuring Adelaide Ortega and Bob Kotowski PGA

GOLETA, Calif.—Adelaida Ortega is blind.
 
“I lost my eyesight when I was 45, and it was just a really difficult thing for me. I had to learn how to do everything again,” said Ortega, who lives in Santa Barbara.
 
It was a struggle that took a massive mental toll.
 
“You go out and you can't see things and you miss people's faces. You don't know what their faces look like anymore. So I mean, it, it is really hard,” said Ortega.
 
But adaptive golf has been her saving grace.
 
“I’m constantly feeling and thinking about my body and which way it's turning and twisting. So I don't know if golfers play that way, but I know that's the way I play golf,” said Ortega.
 
This is the first golf clinic that has been hosted by Blind Fitness, a local nonprofit dedicated to empowering visually impaired people through adaptive fitness and outdoor recreation.
 
Brianna Pettit created the organization during the pandemic.
 
“ I became friends with people with vision loss. And just the thought of them not being able to get out and enjoy the things that I enjoyed really got to me,” said Pettit.
 
Since 2021 Blind Fitness has worked with over 200 visually impaired people in the Tri-county area, offering everything from hiking to surfing.  
  
The roughly dozen golf players had varying degrees of blindness.
 
“I have light perception. I can't see you, but I could tell where the sky is. but that’s it,” said Bob Resnick, who lives in Santa Barbara.
Bob Resnick is working on his form and preparing for a major tournament.
 
“I never really played golf. Seriously. But it's the only sport I can play now because it's the one sport with the ball that the ball doesn't move. It's on the ground. It'll stay there,” said Resnick.
  
“It’s all about feel and timing and rhythm and learning their own balance. When the blind player repeats the same process, or any player for that matter, over and over again, they become acutely aware of the proximity of the ball, their timing, their feel,” said PGA Golf Professional Instructor Robert Kotowski.
 
Many players here say that losing vision has opened them up to new opportunities.
 
“ Well, I always call it life after blindness, but basically there's a lot of opportunities out there. The only restriction that they have is their own confidence. They have to have confidence,” said Golf Coach Bill Davis.
 
A blind, disabled, and adaptive golf classic will be taking place January 27th at Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta.

Golf is difficult even with full vision. On Monday, January 12, blind and low-vision athletes will take the challenge head-on at a specialized adaptive golf clinic in Goleta.

The Blind Fitness Golf Clinic will take place from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Sandpiper Golf Club, where blind and low-vision participants will receive hands-on instruction designed specifically for nonvisual play. The clinic is hosted by Blind Fitness in partnership with Olde School Golf School.

“For a sport that’s already hard with vision, this clinic shows what’s possible when instruction is adapted intentionally,” said Tania Isaac-Dutton, executive director of Blind Fitness.

The clinic will be led by Robert Kotowski, a longtime PGA professional who specializes in coaching blind, disabled, and adaptive golfers. According to Isaac-Dutton, the program follows a structured, tactile, and verbal sequence that allows participants to line up, feel the ball’s position, understand the terrain, and select the appropriate swing.

Kotowski has been a golf professional since 1981 and has coached more than 15,000 students over the course of his career, including blind and disabled athletes competing at the national level. He is the longtime director of the California Blind and Disabled Golf Association and the author of a blind and disabled golf manual, and he has hosted the California Blind and Disabled Golf Classic for more than 25 years. Isaac-Dutton said he is donating his time, equipment, and instruction for the clinic.

“There are guide sticks so the participants can feel where the ball is, and Bob has very distinct swings — one for putting, one to get a little farther, and another to really knock it across the grass,” Isaac-Dutton said. “By describing the terrain and giving cues about the environment, participants can make real adjustments.”

Isaac-Dutton said she recently observed the method in action, watching a blind participant sink multiple putts — even in high wind.
“It was really windy that day,” she said. “With careful instruction — ‘There’s a breeze coming this way’ or ‘The ground slopes slightly’ — the participant can learn how to adjust their swing and stance.”

The clinic is designed to prepare athletes and sighted guides for the upcoming 2026 Howard Shaw Memorial California Blind, Adaptive & Disabled Winter Golf Classic, which will be held later this month at Zaca Creek Golf Course in Buellton.

Beyond competition, Isaac-Dutton said the clinic emphasizes trust and empowerment.

“It’s about being outside, in community, and being met halfway with where someone is at in their vision and ability,” she said. “That being embraced as it is.”

The clinic is free to participants and volunteers. 
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Visit blindfitness.org.

Closing Thoughts
Adelaide and Matias’s stories are powerful reminders that:
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• Adaptation is possible.
  
  
• Community makes the journey easier.
  
  
• Movement builds confidence and connection.
  
  
• Inclusion isn’t just an idea - it’s an experience we create together.
  
  
  

We are honored to have all three individuals as part of our team of strong, united, and thriving athletes.

For me, as a blind person, concerts are a uniquely accessible form of entertainment. The sound and energy of a live show are experiences that don’t depend on sight. So, I was excited when I heard Paul McCartney was coming to the Santa Barbara Bowl. Unfortunately, that excitement turned to frustration when I tried to buy tickets on the AXS website.
I waited in the virtual queue like everyone else. When it was my turn, however, my screen reader — the software I rely on to navigate the internet — was unable to read the ticket selection page. I tried both of the standard screen readers, Jaws and NVDA, without any success. Because I couldn’t select a seat myself, I had to ask a friend for help. By the time they could look at the page, the tickets were sold out.
Adding to my frustration is a message on the AXS website that reads: “Ensuring a Fair Fan Experience.” This message is hard to reconcile with my experience.
An inaccessible website doesn’t feel fair, and it effectively excludes visually impaired customers.
The situation didn’t improve when I tried to resolve it. I received a call back from an AXS agent, but the call ended abruptly after I asked for permission to record it. As a customer trying to spend $600 on a ticket, the experience was disheartening.
The internet should be accessible to everyone, but this experience highlights how digital barriers can still prevent people with disabilities from participating fully. Companies that provide public services, like ticket vendors, have a responsibility to make their websites accessible. This is a matter of equal access and inclusion.
While I missed out on this concert, I hope sharing my story encourages companies to prioritize digital accessibility so that everyone has the same opportunity to enjoy live events.

By Lucas Nadolskis, S.B.
Posted in The Independent, Thursday September 25, 2025 | 3:21 pm

Click here to read the original article: ​​www.independent.com/2025/09/25/at-a-loss-for-a-mccartney-ticket/

For Dan Broz, a simple walk across the street becomes a life-or-death gamble. The blind Santa Barbara resident says he has been hit seven times by cars, three times in Santa Barbara, while trying to navigate the city's streets.

"It's a game of will the driver stop and pay attention or not," said Broz while crossing the street.
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And the anxiety of navigating busy streets keeps Broz from going out. "So I stay inside a lot more often than most people," Broz said.

Broz is one of over 9,000 visually impaired people in Santa Barbara County, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. When he does venture out, ADA-compliant crosswalks with auditory signals are essential for safe travels.

"Especially if it's beeping on both sides, because then that's an auditory tether to the other side. So I can tell there's a crosswalk here, and the crosswalk on that side is all the way over there, and I know where that is," Broz said.

To get an idea of how many crosswalks "talk back", KSBY looked at a two-mile stretch from Milpas Street to the Harbor along Cabrillo Boulevard and tested 13 crosswalks. With the exception of Garden Street and Cabrillo Boulevard, none of the crosswalks on the route had auditory signaling, even the ones with braille.

Former sustainable transportation planner Heather Deutsch says crosswalks are only one piece of accessibility infrastructure that needs attention.

"So if we look down the sidewalk here, you can see that, although there is a clear five-foot sidewalk width, it isn't free of obstructions. And sometimes that's something the city needs to focus on. But it's also something that we as a society need to think about," Deutsch said.

Many times, sidewalks are blocked or obstructed by parked cars, signs, or broken pavement, and these obstacles can be prevent people with visual impairments from getting where they need to go.

The city is working on safer streets through Project Vision Zero. One recent upgrade is a pedestrian hybrid beacon at Los Positas and Stanley Drive. Transportation planner Jessica Grant says signal upgrades like this improve safety and serve people with different mobility needs.

To activate the auditory feedback and buzzing on the crosswalk button, you must hold the button down for a few seconds to trigger the automated voice.
Broz says these improvements help, but adds that safety is everyone's responsibility.

​"It just takes a half a second of attention to make sure someone who's blind or visually impaired isn't crossing, or any with any kind of disability that makes crossing the street more challenging," Broz said.

Read original article by David Powdrell here: ​https://www.edhat.com/news/surfing-without-sight-at-santa-claus-lane/

August 20, 2025- On a recent Saturday morning at Santa Claus Lane Beach, I had the privilege of photographing something extraordinary—blind or visually impaired surfers riding the waves.
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Organized by the nonprofit Blind Fitness in collaboration with Surf Happens and WayFinder, the event brought children and adults together to experience the ocean in a way most of us can barely imagine.

​Surfing is challenging enough with sight, but these athletes rely on touch, sound, balance, and trust. Volunteers guided them into position, coaches cheered encouragement, and then, with determination and joy, they launched into the surf. The result was pure inspiration.

As I stood behind the camera, I kept thinking: what if the rest of us tried surfing blind? Close your eyes the next time you paddle out.
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You’ll hear the rhythm of the waves differently, feel the board shift beneath your feet, and sense the ocean’s pull in a more primal way. That’s what these surfers do every time—they transform what most would call a limitation into a celebration of courage.