The disability rights movement was described as lagging behind other social movements, with the population affected becoming even more marginalised where disability intersects with gender. A recurring challenge is the charity mindset around disability and inclusion – framing people as giver and receiver, powerful and powerless – which obscures the inherent value of a person with a disability being present at the table.
- Good practice: IPC programme in Malawi. Stigma and discrimination linked to disability, including social misconceptions with curses, kept people in their homes. A systemic response combined three strands: making disability visible through public para-sport viewing parties; using para-sport lessons as an entry point into wider education, training teachers who also became coaches; and creating a pathway through national para-games, with around 100 athletes participating. This drove wider systemic change, including a first national disability act, a requirement for councils to integrate para-sport, the National Paralympic Committee’s first official partner, and stronger employment outcomes for people with disabilities.
- Good practice: Trinidad and Tobago. A collaboration between a development bank, the IPC and other partners combined top-down and bottom-up approaches to public policy analysis, identifying reforms and providing government with a roadmap to reduce barriers, alongside technical support brought directly to communities.
Sports facilities are also a target for development banks considering infrastructure investment, underlining the need to keep identifying and addressing further barriers.
- Good practice: The State of Qatar has taken an approach of Sports for All, advisory councils were established with members of the community with different forms of disabilities to ensure they were part of the development and creation process during the build out for the FIFA World Cup 2022 Games. The advisory councils continue to meet and discuss sport programming even post the games. Qatar Foundation hosts an Ability Friendly program, which supports children with disabilities by providing dedicated facilities, trained coaches, and fit for purpose sport lessons, so that all kids of all abilities can play safely and with dignity. The Ability Friendly program has trained coaches throughout the country and beyond through its train the trainer program.
Not all disability is visible, and around 300 million people around the world live with an intellectual disability. The statistics around the access and health outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities provides a stark reality.
- Good practice: For girls and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities, finding sports role models in mainstream media can be incredibly difficult. Special Olympics creates a highly visible global platform that proves to young girls what is possible. The organization systematically targets gender parity across functions and innovated through a unified program where athletes with intellectual disabilities are paired with those without under the same team.
Sport can provide access and opportunity to marginalized and vulnerable populations and can serve as a tool to provide identity and belonging. In countries where street children may not have government-issued IDs, they become excluded for health, education and government services at large, including protection from violence, and sport programming can provide a tool to elevate these children out of poverty.
- Good practice: The Street Child World Cup which takes places alongside major sporting events, has promoted access and government support to children through their participation in sporting games. Their active participation has led to inclusion in government systems for them and their families, providing opportunity and access to economic livelihoods, education, health, and more.