Category: Sport, Recreation & Arts

Physical Access and Sport

Front cover of the guide, Access for all about physical access and sport.An accessible and inclusive sports club sometimes requires a few physical adjustments to buildings. More than anything it needs some forward planning and continuing commitment. Access for All: Opening Doors is a guide aimed at anyone involved in running or working in a sports club. However, this guide for physical access and sport is useful for any organisation. 

For example, there is information on paths of travel and ramps, signage and colour contrast, and types of doors. Other information is specific to entertainment venues such as spectator viewing areas and acoustics. Doors receive detailed information and the difficulties with revolving doors. 

The resource covers the main areas of physical access and leads on to other information. It’s down to the detail such as approaches to the building, information and signage, and getting around the facilities. 

The Centre for Accessible Environments website has more  free publications.

Kicking goals for access and sport

Two young men each with one leg and using crutches, compete for the football on the football field. Kicking UD Goals in Sport. Playing and watching sport is a major cultural activity in Australia. Joining a sports club or being part of the fan group brings a sense of belonging. Participating in sport has physical and mental health benefits. Kate Anderson and Susan Balandin write about this important topic in “Kicking a Goal for Inclusion in Sports Clubs and Stadia”. The authors take a universal design approach to solutions. 

Their book chapter explains how sports providers can promote inclusion for people with disability. Taking a universal design approach they discuss three key areas: spectatorship, membership and employment. You can get institutional access via Springerlink, or you can access through ResearchGate. 

From the abstract

Sports participation and fandom play an important role in the lives of many Australians, including people with disability. Participating in sport offers valuable benefits for physical and mental well-being and can enhance a person’s sense of belonging. 

In addition to playing sport, people with disability have a right to be included in mainstream spectatorship and fandom activities. Despite this, many sports clubs fall short and give little thought to the inclusion of people with disability as staff or volunteers.

This chapter covers some of the ways in which sports providers can promote engaging and meaningful community inclusion for people with disability. We adopt a universal design perspective to showcase practical inclusion opportunities for people with disability across three key participation domains in the sporting arena: spectatorship, membership, and employment. 

Being a good sport

Picture of young women on a netball court. Being a good sport.Australians come together for sport no matter who they are or where they’re from. That’s why it’s important to keep sport as inclusive as possible. While there is a need for specialised sports facilities for para-athletes, community sporting groups and clubs need to adapt to providing sporting activities for everyone.

Introducing young people to sport and keeping them involved can have long term positive effects. However, young people with disability are involved to a lesser extent. While there are some specialised programs for children and young people, this may not be the way of the future.

Susanna Geidne and Kajsa Jerlinder tackle this issue in the Sport Science Review journal.  After a systematic search of peer-reviewed articles, they conclude,

“We must go from adapting physical activity for disabled persons to adapting physical activity for all people, because the diversity of people’s reasons for doing sports, their differing backgrounds and their uniqueness all demand it. Such an approach will result in more people doing sports for longer in life, which will benefit everyone, both individually and at the societal level.”

The title of the article is, “How sports clubs include children and adolescents with disabilities in their activities. A systematic search of peer-reviewed articles”.

Sport and Recreation Victoria are doing great work on inclusion and have produced a useful handbook, Design for Everyone Guide. 

Music and Universal Design

men and women in dark blue shirts are signing. The bow of a violin is also visible with the orchestra in the background.It’s often assumed that music education programs are not something for people who a deaf. An article in the Journal of American Sign Languages & Literatures says this is not so. Using a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach, the authors challenge these preconceptions. The article begins, ” Music is not bound to a single modality, language, or culture, but few music education programs represent a multimodal spectrum of music…” and overlook the contribution of Deaf culture. Music universal design and the Deaf community do go together.

There is no one way of engaging with music, so different ways of experiencing the sensory, linguistic and cultural diversity of music is something music education practitioners might like to look at. The title of the article is Universal Design for Music: Exploring the Intersection of Deaf Education and Music Education. 

An Auslan interpretation of Handel’s Messiah was performed by a Deaf choir in 2015 at the Sydney Opera House. There is a video of the complete two hour concert where there is interpreting throughout by individuals and groups. If you just want the Hallelujah Chorus where all interpreters get involved, go to 1hour 38 minutes into the video.

 

Universal Design – Sport and Recreation Facilities

Evan WilkinsonEvan Wilkinson outlines the process that Sport and Recreation Victoria went through to bring about a better understanding of the principles of universal design.

One of his key arguments is that if universal design principles are considered at the outset, the cost implications are low. However, if left until later in the design and construction process, the cost of ‘adding on’ access features is far more costly. Download the PDF of the PowerPoint Slideshow (5.5 MB) for more on UD and sport and recreation facilities.

Sport and Recreation Victoria have also launched their Design for Everyone Guide. The link takes you to the website that also has a very useful video on universal design shown below.

Camp Manyung is universally designed

Camp Manyung continues to lead the way in implementing universal design principles with more improvements for access and inclusion. They now have a harness for the flying fox for wheelchair users which is a great addition to their inclusive facilities. However, there’s no reason why other campers can’t use it too. Others with reduced mobility or low vision, or very apprehensive about participating could perhaps use it as well. The harness looks like it feels very safe.

The harness was co-designed with industry experts, outdoor professionals, and disability support experts. People with lived experience helped develop and test the system.

A man is standing by a chair that has the universal harness ready for the man in the wheelchair to sit in it. The man in the wheelchair is lifting himself out of the chair ready to transfer to the harness.

Camp Manyung is a good example of how specialist equipment enhances the existing universally designed camp site to make it more inclusive. It also shows how specialist equipment needs to be embedded in a universally design setting to be successful.

The new harness enables participation in activities like Giant Swings, Flying Foxes, and Challenge Courses. Image courtesy Gary Sissons, MPNews.

A participant swings in the harness on the high ropes course. They are laughing.

Camp Manyung aims to make camp programs inclusive for all and to provide equal participation and challenge for every camper. The new harness replaces the old one which had limited access to height-based activities.

Montage of images of the Universal Flying Fox showing people enjoying the tree top activity.

So many things to do

The website section on accessibility outlines the accommodation, specialised equipment such as beach wheelchairs, and adaptive cycles. The camp is one of many located in Victoria and has many different indoor and outdoor activities.

More details on the facilities are provided in a larger document in plain language. It covers everything from pre-arrival and what to expect when you get there including food and drink. The long list of adventure activities are carefully explained with images of equipment and places. This is an excellent example not just being inclusive, but how to let others know that you are.

There is also a video of really good instructions for operators about applying the harness which is also well designed for operators. A good universal design result.

Integrating universal design into camp activities

An earlier version of this post outlined some of the initial work that went into making Camp Manyung universally designed. Here is the relevant content.

Sport and Recreation Victoria and YMCA wanted to increase awareness and applicability of universal design in residential camps. They produced a report, Universal Design: Integrating the Principles into Camp Activities. The report outlines ways in which environments, activities and programs within residential camps can be used by everyone. It shows how to apply universal design to all aspects of camp activities.

The image shows how any one can enjoy the flying fox on the “Skyrider”. 

Wheelchair users enjoying the inclusive camp high ropes activity.

There is no legislation within Australia to guide the design of sporting or leisure activities that enable participation by everyone at a level that suits them. Sport and Recreation Victoria have embraced the principles of universal design to make all their camps and activities inclusive. The accessible high ropes course shows that anything is possible.