Sport and Physical Activity across the Lifespan by Rylee A. Dionigi & Michael Gard

Author:Rylee A. Dionigi & Michael Gard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

Sport for All and Disability

Internationally, disabled people have increasingly been targeted in sports policy and practice and they continue to be one of the key recipient groups of Sport for All resources. Strategically, Sport for All is advocated through the Council of Europe and recently the International Olympic Committee announced Sport for All as a priority and established a Sport for All Commission (International Olympic Commission 2013). A search of the internet also reveals that many national and local campaigns have adopted the Sport for All strapline to promote various programmes and initiatives. For disabled people, Sport for All is most frequently enacted through policy and programmes that strive to increase participation. The underlying assumption here is that supporting more disabled people to engage in sport is a good thing. After all, it is often assumed that this will help to bridge the participation gap existing between disabled people and other groups within society (Moran and Block 2010).

Typically, a combination of two approaches is adopted to increase sports participation for disabled people. First, disabled people are encouraged to participate in mainstream sports. The merit of adopting this approach to Sport for All is that the possibilities open up for disabled and non-disabled people to engage together. This mirrors broader developments associated with disability rights and calls for a more inclusive society. However, it should be acknowledged that some disabled people continue to find it difficult to access or play sports designed for non-disabled people. Moreover, non-disabled people may be less receptive to participate with disabled people if they perceive the sport and their performance will be compromised. To this end, this approach to Sport for All can become delimiting when the systems and stakeholders supporting sport do not reconsider how sport should better reflect the needs of disabled people.

A second approach utilised to promote Sport for All for disabled people is through separate dedicated disability sport provision. Through this approach, sports are modified or new ones developed specifically for disabled people. Here, the philosophy of Sport for All is underpinned by a recognition that sports have to change in order to enable participation by disabled people. The merit of adopting this approach to Sport for All is that disabled people can participate on their terms and have the opportunity to engage competitively. Within this setting disability sport rules, coaching and facilities will take account of the needs of disabled participants. The challenge to this approach to Sport for All is that it reinforces a status quo that normalises the separation of disabled people within society. More broadly, disabled activists have contested this kind of exclusion by campaigning for a more inclusive and equitable society. Could the separation promoted through disability sport be counterproductive to these kinds of wider concerns to address exclusion within society? Or is this separation not such a bad thing if it is achieving the goal of more participation by disabled people in sport through a Sport for All approach?

Whilst inclusion into mainstream sport and dedicated disability

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.