Disability Sport

"With its primary focus on adult athletes in competitions, Disability Sport, Second Edition, contains in-depth coverage of essential issues, including the historical context of disability and sport; the organizations, competitions, and sport opportunities for athletes with disabilities; the international perspective; current challenges and controversies in disability sport; and the coaching and training of athletes with disabilities including sports medicine issues, activity modifications, equipment uses, and even management for both adults and children" --

Academic research on the Paralympics and disability sport is growing. University courses, governing bodies, and sporting organisations are also witnessing a rise of interest in disabled sport. This book is therefore timely and of importance. Written by leading scholars, it addresses a variety of topics in relation to the Paralympics and disability sport. These include: the sociology of Paralympic sport; sport coaching at recreational and elite level; sport history and exercise rehabilitation; exercise participation; and future directions for disability sport research. Throughout the book, disability sport is both celebrated and critically examined. Critical questions are raised, and practical suggestions offered, about being a Paralympian, coaching athletes with a disability, and exercise as a form of rehabilitation. Empirical evidence is drawn from different people and various sports. These range from autoethnographic stories from a former Paralympian, to interviews with disability sport administrators, to observations of and interviews with coaches of athletes in the sports of adapted water skiing, para-swimming, and wheelchair basketball, rugby and tennis. The book will be of interest to sociologists of sport, sport coaches, sport and exercise psychologists, disability scholars, qualitative researchers, and disability sporting organisations. This book was published as a special issue of Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health.

Disability sport is a relatively recent phenomenon, yet it is also one that, particularly in the context of social inclusion, is attracting increasing political and academic interest. The purpose of this important new text – the first of its kind – is to introduce the reader to key concepts in disability and disability sport and to examine the complex relationships between modern sport, disability and other aspects of wider society. Drawing upon original data from interviews, surveys and policy documents, the book examines how disability sport has developed and is currently organised, and explores key themes, issues and concepts including: disability theory and policy the emergence and development of disability sport disability sport development in local authorities mainstreaming disability sport disability, physical education and school sport elite disability sport and the Paralympic Games disability sport and the media. Including chapter summaries, seminar questions and lists of key websites and further reading throughout, Sport, Disability and Society provides both an easy to follow introduction and a critical exploration of the key issues surrounding disability sport in the twenty-first century. This book is an invaluable resource for all students, researchers and professionals working in sport studies, disability studies, physical education, sociology and social policy. Nigel Thomas is Head of Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University, UK, where his research focuses on the history, mainstreaming, and media coverage of disability sport. He previously worked for ten years with young disabled people as a sports development officer in local authorities and national governing bodies. Andy Smith is Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport and Exercise at the University of Chester, UK. He is a co-editor of the International Journal of Sport Policy, and a co-author of Sport Policy and Development: A Sociological Introduction, and An Introduction to Drugs in Sport: Addicted to Winning? Both books are published by Routledge (2009).

"Through interviews with key figures, here are both the history of the movement and the personal stories of gifted athletes who gave disability sports their irresistible momentum" Cf. Our choice, 2000.

This new edition of Teaching Disability Sport: A Guide for Physical Educators is loaded with five new chapters, more than 200 games and skills, and everything that future and current teachers need to plan and implement sport skill-related lessons in an inclusive physical education program. Published in its first edition as Inclusion Through Sports, this rendition places greater emphasis on preparing future physical education teachers to use disability sport in their programs. It offers instruction on the various aspects of disability sport, how to teach it, and how to improve programming for students, regardless of ability or disability. This book's ABC model guides readers through the stages of program planning, implementation planning, teaching, assessment, and evaluating. Readers are also shown how to use IEPs and develop goals and objectives for lesson plans. In addition, Teaching Disability Sport provides instruction on wheelchair selection and fitting, equipment concerns, and Web addresses for adapted sports and activities. And an inclusion index makes selecting the right sports and games easy. The 200+ games and activities are cross-referenced to functional profiles (low, medium, high) of students with disabilities. Teachers have the choice of which disability sports to implement and at what level.

This collection offers a deep and broad perspective for analysis by drawing on literature from disability studies, special educational needs (SEN), sports pedagogy, physical education and youth sport, and the sociology of sport.

Marking a new direction for disability sport scholarship, this book explores cutting-edge issues and engages creatively with contemporary approaches to research in this important emerging discipline. Featuring contributions from leading and up-and-coming scholars around the world, the book’s wide-ranging chapters offer novel perspectives on the relationship between theory, method, and empiricism in disability sport research and highlight how researchers can be both innovative and informed when entering the field. It also explores methodological considerations when conducting disability sport research, including social, cultural, and political reflections of the research process from disabled and non-disabled academics. This much-needed resource supports disability sport scholars in developing a conceptual grounding in the subject and establishes a space for intersectional accounts of sport and physical activity which challenge homogenous understandings of disability. This book is essential reading for any student or researcher working in disability sport, adapted physical activity, or adapted physical education, and a valuable reference for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, disability studies, cultural studies, the body, or research methodology.

Sport is often at the centre of battles for rights to inclusion linked to class, race and gender, and this book explores struggles centred on disability in different cultural settings in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It challenges oversights and assumptions about the ‘normal’ body, and describes how individual and organizational transformations can occur through sport. The abilities of a person are recognised and placed centre stage - instead of the individual being forgotten, excluded, or placed at the margins simply because they have a disability. National, regional and global change is part of the shift to the rights based approach reflected in the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Making sport inclusive affects the accessibility of facilities, funding, the media, policies, programs, organisations, sponsors and spectators, and at the same time changes the cultural values of the wider society. It also raises issues about competition access and eligibility for ‘different’ and technologically enhanced ‘cyborg’ bodies, and for those most socially disadvantaged. Addressing these questions which ultimately touch on the real meaning of sport can lead to profound changes in people’s attitudes, and how sport is organized locally and globally. Growth in the influential global organisations of the Paralympic Games, Special Olympics and Deaflympics is examined, as is the approach to disability in sport in both advantaged and resource poor countries. The embodied lives of persons with disabilities are explored utilizing new theoretical models, perspectives and approaches. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.