A new £14m sports and complementary therapy centre has been opened at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford as part of a £23.5m campus redevelopment project.

The 5680sq m (61,139sq ft) centre, called thePoint4, has been created to improve the education and training for people with sight loss. The new facilities feature an IFI Stage 2-accredited, Cybex-equipped gym for students training to work in the fitness industry as well as a community gym, open to students and members, boasting a total of 75 stations. In addition, there are also two spa rooms, a fitness pool, massage facilities, conference and meeting rooms and a licensed restaurant. To cater for the visually impaired users, and as part of the college's aim to become IFI accredited, the facility offers tactile landmarks on the stairwells, floors and skirting to aid with navigation and tactile entry and wheelchair access.

There will also be touch screen computers that offer a schematic diagram of the building and each piece of equipment in the centre. Six information points will be included in the centre enabling easy navigation and better understanding of the equipment for disabled users. Centre manager, Chris Combe, said: "The colour contrast and tactile buttons on the gym equipment are excellent aids. We didn't want to have two styles of equipment at the centre, one for disabled and the other for non-disabled users. Integration of our learners with the local community is a key goal.

"We want to create a model of excellence for working with the blind and partially sighted and other disabilities, For those who aren't confident in a gym environment, we can exercise with them in our smaller training gym initially and then, when they feel able, they can be fed into the main gym to workout alongside the other members." Memberships at the centre start at £19 a month for disabled users and £49 per month for full membership. In addition to fitness facilities, the centre offers indoor and outdoor sports pitches, designed to meet international Futsal standards and a sports hall with retractable seating for 280 people.

The college will host the 2010 Blind Football World Championships in August 2010 and has been accredited as a training camp for the British/English Blind Football Team, England Futsal Team and will be the venue for both the blind and partially sighted football leagues. The college is also listed as a West Midland Training Camp for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Tony Larkin, head of events and conferences, said: "We wanted to create an international standard pitch so that we could foster links with British/English Blind Football team. We now have one of the only indoor and outdoor international size football pitches in the UK. Our extensive research and development looked into everything from creating sound boards for both the indoor and outdoor pitches (which help blind players with their orientation), to the best colour contrast (white and blue) and the use of single line markings and appropriate lighting."

Elsewhere on the campus, there is a new 56-bedroom students' hall and a new Access Assessment Centre. The whole project has been funded by the sale of land along with grants from the Learning and Skills Council, Advantage West Midlands, The Football Foundation, Garfield Weston and Sports England.