DISABILITY SPORT MUST COME BACK STRONGER
One of the pandemic’s many tragedies has been its awful impact on the disabled community. Here, Paralympics legend Tanni Grey-Thompson explains why they must not be left behind
BARONESS Tanni Grey-Thompson has a saying: ‘Disabled people should be able to be rubbish at sport.’ The 11-time Paralympic champion’s mantra is borne out of her belief that opportunities for disabled people to play sport are limited unless they are capable of winning medals for their country.
‘In a lot of people’s minds you are a Paralympian or you are nothing,’ the former British wheelchair racer tells Sportsmail. ‘If you are disabled, it is quite hard to just be a recreational sports person.’
Before the coronavirus pandemic, that was finally starting to change. The number of disabled people exercising 150 minutes a week was at an all-time high of 4.5million (47 per cent), according to data by Sport England.
But that figure has fallen by around 500,000 since the beginning of the first lockdown, a period when many disabled people were forced to shield and the only activities available — such as running and cycling — were unsuitable.
It remains the case that disabled people are twice as likely to be ‘inactive’ — less than 30 minutes of exercise a week — than non-disabled people.
‘What has been difficult is shutting leisure provisions and sports clubs because it’s not so easy for disabled people just to go out and be active,’ says Grey-Thompson (above, right), who as well as being a member of the House of Lords is the chair of industry body ukactive.
‘For someone like me as a wheelchair user, you can’t just go out for a long walk or a jog the same as somebody else can. Day chairs are not designed to do that so it is really difficult to get that cardiovascular exercise.
‘Equally, for someone who is visually impaired and who would usually go to the gym and run on a treadmill, they can’t just go out and run on the street because they can’t see. The explosion in online classes has been amazing but it is harder as a disabled person to find things you can do. It’s some of those really basic things that are just not as easy to do.’
Research by the charity Activity Alliance has found that twice as many disabled people felt coronavirus had reduced their ability to exercise compared to non-disabled people.
In the same survey, 38 per cent of disabled people said self-isolating at home was a barrier to being active and 35 per cent cited a fear of contracting coronavirus.
As Grey-Thompson points out, such a fear is hardly surprising given 60 per cent of people that have died from Covid-19 have been disabled.
‘I’ve got quite a lot of friends who are disabled and they have been really worried,’ she adds.
‘I don’t have any underlying health conditions but I have to think about going out because I just don’t want to be breathed on by people or people coming too close to me.
‘If you look at disabled people who are shielding, or disabled people who aren’t going anywhere because they are worried about people coming too close, there are lots of things that might make it harder for disabled people to come back to activity. We need to be really aware of that when it comes to how people return.
‘Change is not going to happen easily or on its own. You need the attitude, facilities and equipment. I hope it is a wake-up call.’
Although organised outdoor sport for disabled people is exempt from the current lockdown rules, in reality, most facilities remain closed. The charity Riding for Disabled, for example, have only five of their 500 groups open.
Activity Alliance chief executive Barry Horne says: ‘Before Covid, we’d gone up to 58 per cent of disabled people feeling that they had the opportunity to be active, but that’s come right down to 29 per cent.
‘It’s one of the many tragedies of Covid that that’s been set back so significantly. It’s going to be almost starting again for a lot of people with some new and additional barriers on top.’
WITH that in mind, Horne wants the Government and decision makers in grassroots sport to prioritise disabled people when facilities open after the pandemic.
‘If we do not act now, we will witness inequalities widen or, unthinkably, they may become irreversible,’ adds Horne.
‘We don’t want a group of our population to be left behind and become more vulnerable.
‘If sport and activity is good for you, and all the evidence is that it is, how could you not include the group that needs that opportunity the most?
‘It’s not that we need more dedicated funding for disabled people, it’s more about thinking about every penny and every plan. Is it done in a way that makes it possible, rather than impossible, for disabled people to get that benefit?
‘We’re working with ukactive on how they can guide the leisure sector back into activity and the messaging needs to reassure disabled people that they are coming in to a secure and safe environment.’
At the forefront of the fightback are Sport England, who have put tackling inequality at the heart of their new ten-year strategy — which they unveiled in this Sportsmail pullout last month.
As part of that, they and the National Lottery have invested more than £1.5million into British Wheelchair Basketball’s new ‘Inspire a Generation’ programme, which aims to double participation over the next four years.
There are currently 17,000 playing wheelchair basketball in the UK but they hope to become the world’s No1 nation for the sport, surpassing the USA, who boast up to 24,000 players.
‘Research tells us that more than 50 per cent of disabled people want to do more sport — and we’d love to get them into wheelchair basketball,’ admits Lisa Pearce, chief executive at British Wheelchair Basketball.
Great Britain’s men are the wheelchair basketball world champions, while the women are world silver medallists.
But grassroots is where the game is really looking to grow by recruiting 800 ‘community activators’ to deliver taster sessions for new players in the spring.
‘We’re talking about giving thousands of people the opportunity to participate in wheelchair basketball in a way that it’s never been seen before,’ adds Pearce.
‘This is the first significant investment we have had since London 2012 to help us grow the sport. It really is a considerable investment to address the inequality that sits around disabled people.
‘Covid has had a huge impact on people with disabilities and huge inequality is growing. We need to come back stronger and more inclusive.’
Change won’t happen on its own... we must be aware of that