David Black, Service Manager in the Children First Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport Team, considers what can be done in sport to increase accessibility.
It is a fundamental human right for all children and young people to be able to choose to participate in and enjoy sport. But for children and young people with a disability there are a number of barriers they face to taking part.
Members of the Young Persons Sports Panel at Scottish Disability Sports shared their thoughts with us about increasing inclusion and participation within sport. They reflected on how this links to children’s human rights which were enshrined in Scottish law earlier this year.
They considered the relevant articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) including article 3 – ‘Adults must do what’s best for me’, article 28 - ‘I have the right to an education’ and young people’s rights and the principle of non-discrimination - articles 2 and 23.
As one young person told us: ‘It is my right to play sports.’
Young people shared examples of adults coaching and teaching sport lacking understanding and awareness of different disabilities and how these impact on participation.
One young person said: ‘I'm just aware that a lot of people just know the stereotypes of lots of different disabilities.’ She went on to say, ‘People just make assumptions so easily on what people look like, but you never know'.
Care needs to be taken to consider all disabilities, including those that are not visible, to prevent ‘people assuming that there’s nothing and not taking into account what accommodations you need’.
Taking into consideration all young people's needs and circumstances is so important, ‘even if it isn't a disability as you never know what's going on in someone's life that will impact them.’
The young people reflected that ongoing training is needed for sports coaches and teachers, to ensure they are helping to uphold children’s human rights and to support children and young people to access sport in a safer, and more enjoyable way.
One young person with a disability shared her recent experience of being interviewed for a place on a sports college course. She knew she had the skills and attributes required, but her disability restricted her from fully completing one aspect of the course.
The interviewer asked if she still wanted to pursue the application. The young person acknowledged that one module would be unsafe for her to take part in but felt that the college could have considered adapting the module to support her to complete it. She was very clear, ‘Sport can look different for everyone’, and has continued with this application.
Her point was echoed by others in the group, with them supporting the view that all sports need to be considered equally in terms of participation, with one going on to say:
‘People don't take other sports seriously sometimes. Like they don't think boccia or other sports like that is a "proper" sport even though it is.’
Another panel member shared that coaches and teachers ‘need to make adjustments to make sport more accessible’ by keeping in mind children’s human rights and told us about how her involvement in sport changed over time as her physical health deteriorated.
‘Growing up as an incredibly active child, I lived and breathed sport. However, when my health took a turn, I was not provided the help to continue and in turn lost a big part of my identity. This paired with an ableist high school experience that focused on athletes, I felt out of place, forgotten about and not heard… I realise just how many rights I never had the access to.’
These experiences illustrate that more work must be done to ensure that children and young people’s human rights are respected and upheld and to prevent discrimination.
After spending time with this group of motivated and determined young people, it’s clearer than ever that if we listen to children and young people and take action to make sports more accessible, we can create more opportunities for the future generation to thrive.
In the words of one of the young people, ‘Sport has the power to make change. Continue the conversation.’
You can watch presentations here that some of these inspiring young people delivered to a wide range of Sports Governing Bodies at our Conference earlier this year.