As many professional, amateur, club, and youth sports get underway this fall, we have been reflecting on the recent 2024 Paralympic Games, which ended on September 8 as the most-watched in history, exceeding 4.1 billion viewers. This year’s games showcased more than 4,000 athletes from around the globe who competed in over 500 medal events.
The Paralympics have political beginnings, introduced shortly after World War II when many soldiers returned from battle in need of rehabilitation and with lifelong disabilities. The mere existence of the Paralympics and its continuous growth over the years indicates that people with disabilities are worthy — to compete, to entertain, and to be showcased as the influential athletes that they are on an international stage.
Yet, with 25 percent of Americans living with a disability, and most of them inactive, the separation between elite and everyday people presents a simple question: Is physical activity reserved for those who are deemed exceptional?
Disability is human, and movement is a human right. When we make space for those who are marginalized, we all benefit.
Research shows that this physical activity participation gap begins during rehabilitation and continues to widen over time as a disability becomes chronic. Philadelphia happens to be home to the highest population of people living with disabilities in the United States. We are fortunate in our beloved city to have excellent rehabilitation hospitals like Jefferson Moss-Magee that not only work with individuals to get them back to a life worth living, but support them in their identities beyond just “a patient.”
Whether it’s a student, an artist, a gardener, or an athlete, therapists, mentors and coordinators are there to support and guide interests. But from a clinical perspective, rehabilitation might not be the best place or time to learn how to nurture a long-term relationship with lifestyle physical activity. Many people are not psychologically ready to think about how to exercise when they might be learning to use a wheelchair for the first time. Additionally, the healthcare landscape has drastically shifted, with individuals with newly acquired disabilities receiving one-third of the amount of time of structured rehabilitation as compared to 50 years ago. In response, most rehabilitation is focused on basic activities of living.
There are also many social reasons for physical activity’s downward trend. Whether a person is born with a disability or acquires one later in life, a stigma still exists in this country and around the world that a broken body is relegated to the sidelines. We hear stories time and again from physically disabled folks whose loved ones told them, “Well, maybe you can coach or be a manager on the team?” The only exposure to disabled athletes that most of us see is every few years when the winter or summer Paralympic Games comes around. Additionally, recreational centers in Philadelphia don’t often cater to individuals with disabilities, made worse because the primary place that did (Carousel House) closed permanently in 2020.
Philadelphia happens to be home to the highest population of people living with disabilities in the United States.
How do we shift the narrative to highlight that regular, everyday people with disabilities have a right to the joy of movement? With our eyes toward the 2028 Paralympics Games in the United States, we have a moral obligation to update the lens through which the media covers disabled sports. Media outlets need to treat disabled athletes as athletes — and not special interest stories.
If producers and reporters were trained and taught more about disabled athletic events, we would see more, and better, coverage. There are models for this: NBC Sports partnered with Making Space this year, an agency that finds, trains, and hires disabled talent. Committing to disabled representation on all sides of a story is a crucial step toward changing societal depictions and perspectives.
For the everyday athlete, it is also essential to increase the number of quality community-based exercise programs inclusive of and tailored to the needs and perspectives of people with disabilities. Health promotion through lifestyle physical activity beyond clinic walls is the future, as more and more individuals are living and aging with disabilities and chronic health conditions. Disability is human, and movement is a human right. When we make space for those who are marginalized, we all benefit.
Laura A. Baehr, PT, DPT, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences at Drexel University. Her work is focused on physical activity, access, community, equity, and empowerment for people with physical disabilities. Her research elevates lived experience perspectives onto the study team to make community-based exercise meaningful to its end user. Baehr leads a free weekly online seated fitness class through the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports.
Katie Samson is an educator, trainer, storyteller and disabled self-advocate and athlete. She is the Senior Director of Education at Tamman, Inc, and an advisor and consultant in areas that relate to accessibility, inclusion, spinal cord injury, research, and quality of life programs.
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