DISABILITY SPORT D R M
THE SPORTING CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE THIS SUMMER Sport has never been more important, for both physical and mental health, and wellbeing. Michael Erhardt, from Disability Rights UK, takes us through the impact of the pandemic on disability sport.
SINCE March 2020, everyone has been impacted by drastic political, social, and economic changes due to domestic and international responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes often negatively impacted the lives of Disabled people, putting them at risk and isolating them from their communities. Sadly, the negative impacts of the pandemic on Disabled people’s sport and physical activity are still being felt. Having the opportunity to get active in a way that suits us is a right that every Disabled person has. Our right to enjoy sport and physical exercise shouldn’t be an afterthought or treated as a “bonus” to the battles for equality we are fighting in other areas. If we change the world of sport and physical activity, we change lives for the better.
disabili t yreviewmagazine.co.uk
More important than ever
Before the pandemic, the activity gap (the difference in the number of people who describe themselves as physically active) between Disabled people and nonDisabled people had started to narrow. The sports sector was making little, but steady progress by working in more inclusive ways. The Active Lives survey found that before the onset of Covid, the number of Disabled people who said they were physically inactive had fallen to 34%, down from 41% the year before. Bringing this number down is a key concern of our work at Get Yourself Active. As a National Partner of Sport England, we deliver award money from the Together Fund to Disabled People’s User Led Organisations (DPULOs) and local, communitybased organisations.
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