History

  The Beginning

The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) was founded in Paris in 1981, as a non-profit-making organisation. Its status as a legal entity was formalised in 1985, with the adoption of its first Constitution during the General Assembly held in Hurdal (Norway). The Constitution was revised in June 1997, on the occasion of the 5th General Assembly in Casablanca. It has been registered at the Spanish National Sports Council (CSD) since March 1996.

IBSA is fully integrated within the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the maximum governing body for disabled sports at an international level. The Federation holds as its declaration of principles the organisation of sporting activities and competitions. The Federation's Medical and Technical Committees are responsible for coordinating this activity.

IBSA feels it is essential that its movement should have its own identity and boost the practice of sports specifically by blind and visually impaired persons. Its goal is to consolidate itself as an institution and this has been more than satisfied with more than 100 member nations currently registered. IBSA is made up of members from all five continents.

The Executive Committee is IBSA's governing body and it grants priority to all those countries where blind sports have not been developed or where they have not reached an adequate level. It also strives to promote its sports through various communications plans, training programmes and institutional relations, always with the overriding intention of normalising and awarding prestige to blind sports.

  Main goals

IBSA's purpose is:

• to foster friendship among blind athletes,
  
  
• to motivate and get as many blind people as possible involved in sporting activities on a regular basis,
  
  
• to promote and disseminate the ideas underlying both competition and recreational sport for the blind,
  
  
• to defend the Olympic ideal and act in accordance with its principles,
  
  
• to promote the aims and ideas of IBSA at schools for the blind and among blind youngsters in general,
  
  
• to plan, promote and coordinate international events and activities with a view to stimulating greater development of sporting programmes for the blind in every country, including international sports meetings, seminars and conferences on questions related to sports for the blind,
  
  
• to disseminate relevant information and arrange international exchange programmes for people linked to the world of blind sports and the sports advisors and officials of those organisations,
  
  
• to establish universally accepted rules for blind sports,
  
  
• to establish a register of records,
  
  
• to provide aid to those institutions and individuals who work in the field of blind sports ,
  
  
• to act as the maximum authority in all cases, except where the decision depends on a jury at an international competition.

IBSA sees sport as an essential medium for the promotion of blind persons everywhere, as there can be no doubt regarding the formative, self-esteem and excellence-seeking qualities it provides. The principal interest of this Federation is to put across the central idea underlying the promotion of our sports: to demonstrate our capabilities in administering our own activities and defending the interests of blind persons who practice sports. All this must be achieved without abandoning our solidarity with the other disabled groups, something that has been amply demonstrated whenever it was called upon.

  IBSA Silver Jubilee

IBSA celebrated its Silver Jubilee (25th Anniversay) in 2006. To mark the occasion, a specially-designed logo was created and used at all IBSA events during the year and a gala dinner in honour of IBSA presidents was held in Madrid, Spain, on Saturday the 30th of September 2006.