Representation-related Barriers
These may include:
No images of disabled people participating or competing in your sport are included on your NGB website.
Your NGB website does not represent disability provision within your sport, by either not including a ‘Disability’ section on your website; or making it difficult to find it, and including very little information within the section.
Where disabled people are represented visually on your website, they are images in which the disabled person appears quite passive (as an observer, or out of the training/competitive/participatory environment), rather than as active, engaged individuals.
Your NGB has decided to run a ‘come and try’ day for disabled people, so you put some posters together which advertise the day as: ‘A come and try day for the Handicapped’.
Disabled athletes who compete in your NGBs sport, are winning significant medals at important events, however, these successes are not reported on your website as they would have been had the athletes been non-disabled competitors; and when disabled athletes are successful you don’t provide a press-release to local media.
Representation-barriers can potentially have the most profound effect on participation, because by not representing disability sport and disabled people, you are essentially saying that it isn’t important. We have seen an increase in the UK of disability sport on TV, in the newspapers and on the radio – however, it is still disproportionately small when compared to non-disability sport. The impact is that disability sport becomes, at worst, invisible (and disabled people don’t know that they could access your sport) and, at best, re-presented in an apparently passive way (disabled people can be involved but it isn’t particularly active or dynamic). Lack of, or inappropriate representation deprives disabled people (children and adults; those who are already interested in sport, and those who perhaps don’t know they are interested in sport) of positive role models. Appropriate role models are important factors in motivating, maintaining and initiating involvement within sport, and if by not representing disabled people we don’t present characters to aspire to be, then it is to be expected that disabled (and non-disabled) people will think that sport is not for them.
Possible solutions to representation-based barriers:
It is very likely that you, or someone within your NGB (or within FDSW) will know of a disabled person, or a disability club who are playing your sport; so if you don’t have any photographs in your library to include on your website, find out where the participants/competitors are and get some photo’s taken (with appropriate permissions of course). Or contact FDSW to see if they have any appropriate photographs in their library which could be used. Including one or two photographs in amongst the photo’s you already have there will demonstrate that you are thinking (or starting to think) inclusively as an organisation, and will identify to anyone who accesses your website that there are many opportunities for people (whether disabled or non-disabled, coaches or volunteers, officials or support staff, participants or performers) within your sport and NGB.
This could be addressed in one of two ways, the first suggestion is the most inclusive, and the second is a good starting point:
1. Create a disability section underneath each of the tabs or sub-sections of your website so that people visiting the site can find out about non-disability and disability versions of your sport.
2. Create a separate tab or sub-section which is clearly entitled ‘Disability’. Within this section you can include all information relating to coach education, competitions, results, forthcoming events, etc. The disadvantage of doing it this way is that it suggests that your disability sport is separate to your non-disability sport, which means people don’t visit that section because they think it ‘isn’t for them’, or that you have to have specific knowledge in order to get involved with disability provision within your sport (this might have a particular impact on coaches who then think that they need to be separately qualified).
It is great that you have included images on the website which show disabled and non-disabled people engaged with your sport, however, if these images seem to suggest that for disabled people the sport is much more passive it could either lead disabled people to another sport (because they are looking for something that is more active and dynamic), or non-disabled people to think that the disability provision within your sport is not really sport (and then that undermines and undervalues the worth and credibility of disability sport). Think carefully about the images you include on your website (or on posters, or any other form of visual communication), it is fine to include images of disabled people watching sport (because you will undoubtedly also have images of non-disabled people watching sport too), but also make sure you have them of people participating and competing.
Terminology is a hotly debated topic, and varies over time, and between different Nations. However, it is generally accepted by disability organisations (as advocated by disabled people) that certain terms should be avoided because they give rise to certain, inappropriate connotations of what it is to be ‘disabled’. Certain terms are more acceptable to disabled (and non-disabled) people if they are reframed in more positive terms (after all – you are trying to demonstrate that you are a proactive, positive organisation). So replace:
o ‘handicapped’ with ‘disabled person’ (because people no longer have to go ‘cap in hand’ to other people in order to get sufficient resources to survive)
o ‘mentally retarded’ (and ‘retarded’) with ‘person with a intellectual (or learning) disability’
o ‘wheelchair bound’ with ‘wheelchair user’ (because people who use wheelchairs aren’t actually ‘bound’ in to them, it is a piece of equipment which is used to provide freedom, independence and mobility, and as such the vast majority of people transfer in and out of them)
o ‘able-bodied’ with ‘non-disabled’ (because some disabled people are also very able-bodied)
So – in the example provided a more positive (and therefore attractive to the community of individuals you are trying to attract to the session) alternative would be: ‘A come and try session for disabled people’.
Whilst some people might consider amendments to terminology as nothing more than a ridiculous consequence of political correctness, in sport (where we know and value the importance and impact of appropriate communication) the reason is about encouraging people to get involved, and valuing them as individuals. If inappropriate terminology suggests uneducated, ill-concerned, or ignorant, then that does the NGB a disservice; not only does it suggest that it doesn’t really care about disabled people’s experiences, but also that it is not cutting-edge or proactive and positive. It is a straightforward thing to ensure you have right. Email eandt@fdsw.org.uk if you want to check anything, or if you want any further guidance.
It is quite common for the successes of disabled people to take a back-seat to the success stories of non-disabled people. This can suggest that the achievements of disabled people are less valuable or worthwhile than those of non-disabled people. This creates a number of inter-related barriers; firstly it suggests that disability sport and disabled people is/are not as important as non-disabled sport and non-disabled people; secondly, it prevents fantastic role models within disability sport from being showcased (who might otherwise attract or motivate more disabled people to get into your sport, or to go on to aspire to compete, or be involved for their lifetime, etc); and thirdly, it suggests that your NGB doesn’t really value the disability provision it offers. As a standard practice, if you provide press releases for your non-disabled performers or participants successes, do the same for your disabled performers or participants; and always report disability and non-disability sport successes on an equal footing on your website, with your membership, or when nominating people for recognition awards (e.g. Sport Wales Coach of the Year categories, and your NGB Coach of the Year categories). FDSW provide news streams of all disability sport provision it is involved with, see the Academy and Performance section of this website for current stories.
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