OPINION: DISABILITY FRIENDLY SPORT

THE ABOVE STATEMENT from Derwent Tennis President Ross McKenzie and the announcement from York Sport Union President Franki Riley of the Accessible Sport and Physical Activity Consultation are welcome steps for increasing opportunities for disabled students to access sport at York, but it does show that there is still some way to go to make York a fully accessible place for disabled students.

There were many successes of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup hosted recently in the North last winter (having been delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic). One of the surprising and captivating success stories of the tournament was the popularity of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, held in conjunction with the main Men’s and Women’s iterations. Broadcast widely on BBC Sport, the thrill of the wheelchair collisions and (unlike its Union counterpart) its close adherence to the rules of League made it a hit with British viewers.

In light of Wheelchair Rugby League’s new-found popularity, that made me ponder the opportunities available in general to disabled students at the University of York to partake in sport. After some research and scouring over the YUSU website and social media sites, I did find a what seems to be official Facebook account called ‘University of York Disability Sport’.

But it appears this account has been inac- tive for nearly a decade, with its last post from November 2013. So, it does seem that there was a Wheelchair Basketball side at the University ten years ago, but this has been seemingly discontinued, with no information available as to why. This does leave a lot of questions for the University that do need answering. According to official University data, roughly 17 percent of the student population currently enrolled at York identify as being disabled. You can’t tell me that there won’t be enough demand for disability sports with those figures. This casts further spotlight as well on whether the university is enacting the recommendations given by Kelly Balmer, the 2021/22 YUSU Community and Wellbeing Officer, in a 22nd June 2022 report which is available for anyone to access online using this address https://yusu.org/ news/article/news-blogs-disabled-students-report. Although the report is focused mainly on the need for disabled students to have equal access to academic provision to their abled counterparts, I argue the lack of disabled sports is a disappointing failure of the University to ensure all students have access to a quality provision of university life, both academical and non-academical and I urge the student union to take this issue up with University and the colleges urgently. And one hopes that the recent announcements by Derwent Tennis and the York Sport Union will prompt other colleges and University sports to follow suit in time for the commencement of the 2023/24 academcial year in September.

Sport Team

Editor - JACOB BASSFORD Deputy Editor - VACANT