A life between darkness and freedom: Torbjörn Svensson fights while skiing!

A life between darkness and freedom: Torbjörn Svensson fights while skiing!

Finkenberg, Österreich - Torbjörn Svensson, a Swedish researcher and deaf-blind person, struggles with the Usher syndrome, which will cost him in the course of his life both seeing and listening. When diagnosed at the age of 28, he thought that his life was over. Driven by the birth of his daughter, however, he began to recapture his life and rose to ski. He was in a criminal court in Finkenberg in the Zillertal, where he has been skiing since he was second to life, in his heart. "I know the slopes better than people who can see," says the 41-year-old and emphasizes that his memories on the slopes, even if he can no longer see them, as ORF reports .

skiing with technological help

To move safely on the slopes, Svensson uses some aids, including a bright Oranjen Security vest of his translator, which serves as a visual orientation, and a unique vibration system for communication. "When she presses one of the four buttons, it vibrates in a certain place and I know what to do," he explains. This system saves him unnecessary risks. Despite his challenges, he describes the feeling of skiing as the experience of freedom. "Sometimes I even cry on the slopes," admits Svensson, who can hardly hold back the positive emotions that he feels.

Svensson uses its platform to draw attention to the still inadequate support for deaf people in Austria. Lydia Kremslehner from the self -help group for hearing disability and deaf blindness insists that there is a lack of qualified assistance services that understand the specific needs of these people. This prevents those affected from actively participating in social life and perceiving their rights. There are exemplary structures in Sweden, while in Tirol the introduction of specific laws and guidelines is urgently required to enable affected people to participate in life, as well as HIS.SE reports .