[dbaust] disability sport
- From: "Trudy Ryall" <trudy.ryall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <dbaust@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <m1stevens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <sarujac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <hjlawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <Carla.Anderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Meredith Prain" <Meredith.Prain@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2012 21:19:49 +1100
FYI Trudy
Does Disability Sport Get a Fair Go?
Deb Anderson, The Age, 25 September 2012
With a haul of 85 medals, Australia's Paralympics Team punched well above its
weight at the London Games - Monash University staffer Martin Doulton has
figures to prove it. But the flipside is community participation in disability
sports still lags non-disability sports, he says. Despite growing interest, it
seems our national mindset is still off the mark.
Your research is informed by your time as a director of Australian University
Sport?
Yes, and at the world university level, where I sit on the executive committee
of the equivalent of the International Olympic Committee. That gives me an
understanding as to how these things fit from a management perspective. And for
disability sports, there's a missing link at the moment.
There is a link missing in the pathway between national sporting organisations
and the Paralympics bodies - and that link is the tertiary education system?
Is there growth overall in disability sports?
There is a growth trend in the number of Australians involved in Paralympics
activity. The APC has done an amazing job since Sydney 2000 with talent
identification. In 2010-11, 675 school-aged children born between 1995 and 2002
were classified into Paralympics sporting arenas - an increase of 235 from the
year before. That's really good because those kids will be in the frame for Rio
2016. We also know Paralympics athletes have a much longer opportunity for
participation if they're given the support.
What forces are shaping growth in Paralympics sports?
Certainly the Australian Sports Commission has increased funding for the APC in
recent years, up to a total of $23 million in the lead-up to London. But to put
that into context, Team Great Britain for its Paralympics sports put in $75
million . . . That says something for our international competitiveness,
particularly when Australia was still in the top five on the medal tally.
How about at the community level?
In the census in 2006, 6.1 million - or 40 per cent - of Australians over age
18 indicated they had a disability or long-term health problem. Out of that 6.1
million, we had just 500 sportspeople highlighted two years ago for Team
Australia to go to the Paralympics. That's at the elite level. In the
community, you find physical activity participation levels of people with a
disability (28 per cent) are much less than people without a disability (68 per
cent).
So what needs to change?
It will be interesting to see how the amount of media coverage given to the
London Paralympics - on a sport basis - affects participation. I think there's
a lot more credibility given to disability sport as a sport now, rather than as
"rehabilitation" exercise. We're now seeing that people who compete in
wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and floorball are considered athletes
first and foremost. That acceptance perhaps also relates to the fact that, in
the past two-year period, more than 300,000 schoolchildren went through a
disability sport class - a massive increase on the two years before.
So we're talking about a cultural shift?
Absolutely. The other issue we have to look at is accessibility. Community
leisure centres are required from a compliance perspective to be physically
accessible, but it's [also] . about how people feel welcome. While people with
a physical disability have higher sport participation rates than people with an
intellectual disability, whether one of the key barriers is a feeling of lack
of acceptance, or uncomfortableness, in coming to those centres from those
potential participants - that's a big issue we need to grapple with.
To read the full article, visit:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/does-disability-sport-get-a-fair-go-20120924-26gqw.html#ixzz28OYD3Op0
Trudy Ryall
Information Action Officer
Let's Connect Projet - Australia wide
For the deaf blind community
trudy.ryall@xxxxxxxxxxx
0428 393 408
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