4 minute read
Sporting Change This Summer
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.
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.
We are keen to ensure that everyone can get active in a way that suits them. And we know how barriers to participation intersect with impairment, religion, race, gender identity, and class. We understand how important local and grassroots organisations are in redressing the imbalance.
We know that these are often run by the goodwill and dedication of local volunteers and the passion of committed community leaders. We want to support them with the Together Fund.
The urgency of the current moment can be seen in the updating of the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) physical activity guidelines. These new guidelines provided physical activity recommendations for Disabled children and young adults.
Physical activity guidelines are a key element of any public health strategy. They are a necessary knowledge resource, and they can be used to guide national goal-setting. Guidelines also crucially inform policy development. Together, all of these should help the public be physically active and improve health.
However, guidelines alone won’t enable Disabled children and young people to enjoy regular physical activity.
More change is needed across the sector, so everyone can be active and have fun in the ways they want.
The longtail of the pandemic
As Disabled people search for places to get active safely this summer, many of us will be drawn to organisations and events outdoors.
Whilst being outdoors might be safer from a Covid perspective, outdoor spaces are not accessible to everyone. We see many barriers, such as a lack of accessible toilets in parks, locked gates, and even areas that people cannot pass through using a mobility scooter.
Some people have lost support networks around getting active or find public transport feels unsafe. It’s not necessarily the inaccessible activity itself but the ‘ecosystem’ that surrounds it. The networks people had had have eroded away for many.
These issues are all backed up by research into Disabled people’s activity levels. The latest Active Lives Adult Survey shows dramatic and worrying results. The report shows us that a significant number of Disabled people are not getting active, and the deficit between activity levels of Disabled and non-disabled people continues to widen.
Rethinking “Being Active”
The problem of the activity gap is not Disabled people’s to own. The world around us needs to change quickly. The sports sector needs to change how they work, to co-produce with Disabled people to work together to reach a collective result.
A redistribution of power between users and providers could help attention focus not on what society feels Disabled people should do, but on what we want to do and what needs to be done to achieve that instead.
With so many barriers still in place, new guidelines need to be the marker of a fresh start. We need many changes to make these recommendations a reality across the country.
That change includes more inclusive environments and better spaces to be active in. We need more high-quality activities and cheaper equipment. Ultimately, we need more staff who are confident in working with Disabled people. We need better trained social care, health, and education professionals to help promote physical activity with and to Disabled children and young people.
Disabled people have a right to get active. We want everyone to have the chance to feel good and have fun wherever we are and whatever our situation. Now is the time to see that become a reality.
Author: Mikey Erhardt,
Communications Officer, Get Yourself Active Campaign, Disability Rights UK
Website: disabilityrightsuk.org Twitter: @DisRightsUK Facebook: @disabilityrightsuk
