Skates; Walkers; Harnesses

In 1976, while working as a professional skating instructor in Buffalo, Elizabeth M. O'Donnell had the unique idea to teach people who were blind how to ice skate. Initial success led to the formation of the Skating Association for the Blind and Handicapped, Inc. (SABAH, Inc.) as a Buffalo-based not-for-profit educational corporation in 1977. Soon after its initial efforts, SABAH expanded to include children, youth, and adults with all types of disabilities. For more than 22 years, SABAH has taught 9,000 Western New Yorkers who have physical, cognitive, or emotional challenges to ice skate. This past year, locally-raised funds provided instruction to more than 800 people with disabilities, each week. SABAH provides weekly adaptive ice skating lessons, adaptive skating equipment, intense volunteer support, and the opportunity to perform in an annual skating spectacular.

SABAH puts people with disabilities of all ages on ice, blending excellence in on-ice instruction with assistive technology that we have designed to meet skaters' individual needs. SABAH's uniquely designed assistive equipment includes walkers, its own line of adaptive ice skates, and harnesses, functionally extending traditional concepts of "assistive technology" to the recreation arena.