Disability

in Sport
 Disability Awareness
On Equal Terms
"Disabled people are tired of being invisible and are declaring their right to an equal
chance at life." -Christopher Reeve

• Have you ever wondered what it's like to have a disability? How does a
person who can't see read? Can a person with a physical disability
participate in sports? If you couldn't hear, how would you talk with your
friends? Do people with disabilities get frustrated; have friends, like ice
cream? Can you catch a disability?

• Individuals with disabilities are real people whose disability is as normal to

them as you having brown, blue, or green eyes or red, blond, brown, or
black hair. They have feelings. They like some of the same things you do,
including hanging out with friends. If you were to make friends with a
person with a disability what effect would it have on your life?
Discrimination
Visually impaired athlete
Jason Smyth
• Discrimination can include
treating the person
unfavourably because of their
disability, or because of
assumptions made about
people with that type of
disability.
Common Ways People with a Disability are viewed and treated:

Unfortunately, and inaccurately, people with disabilities are often viewed

as:

• victims, or objects of pity

• horrible or grotesque
• burdens, either on society or on their families and carers
• unable, or assumed to be unable, to do things
• having multiple disabilities (such as assuming that a person who uses a
wheelchair also has an intellectual disability)
• childlike
• "special"
Discrimination
• because of assumptions made
about people with that type of
Handcyclist
disability Mark Rohan

• This is known as:

STEREOTYPING
Stereotyping
• Is a preconceived or oversimplified
generalisation involving negative
beliefs about a particular group.

• Negative stereotypes are frequently at

the base of prejudice.
Rower Sarah Caffrey
• The danger of stereotyping is that it no
longer considers people as individuals,
but rather categorises them as
members of a group who all think and
behave in the same way.

• How do we pick up on
stereotypes?
 Wheel Chair Rugby
• The sport's original name was Murder
ball; in the United States, it is referred
to as quad rugby.

• All wheelchair rugby players are

quadriplegic, as the rules require that
they must have a disability that affects all
or a portion of both the upper and lower
extremities.

• The majority of wheelchair rugby

athletes have spinal cord injuries at the
level of their cervical vertebrae.

• Wheelchair rugby is a mixed sport, with

men and women competing on the same
teams and is played indoors on a
hardwood court.
Paralympic Sports
• There are 20 sports in the Paralympic programme for London 2012,
breaking down into disciplines and events.

Paralympic Archery
Paralympic Athletics
Paralympic Cycling – Road
Paralympic Equestrian
Paralympic Judo
Paralympic Rowing
Paralympic Sailing
Paralympic Swimming
Paralympic Table Tennis
Powerlifting
Volleyball - Sitting
Wheelchair Basketball
Wheelchair Fencing
Wheelchair Rugby
Deaflympics • Summer Disciplines: 19 •
Athletics
• Badminton
• Basketball
The current Summer and Winter Deaflympics • Beach Volleyball
• Bowling
programme includes 24 disciplines. • Cycling Road
• Football
• Judo
• Karate
• Mountain Bike
• Orienteering
• Shooting
• Swimming
• Table Tennis
• Taekwondo
• Tennis
• Volleyball
• Wrestling Freestyle
• Wrestling Greco-Roman

Winter Disciplines: 5
•Alpine Skiing
• Cross Country Skiing
• Curling
• Ice Hockey
• Snowboard
Useful websites:
www.paralympics.ie/
www.deaflympics.com
www.london2012.com/games/paralympic