Paralympics haven’t decreased barriers to physical activity for most people with disabilities
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Paralympics haven’t decreased barriers to physical activity for most people with disabilities
Kathleen A. Martin Ginis, University of British Columbia and Cameron M. Gee, University of British Columbia
More than 4,000 athletes from around the world will compete at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, a tenfold increase since the first Paralympics in 1960. Despite the growth in Paralympic athletes, for most of the world’s 1.5 billion people with a disability, participation in sports, exercise and other types of physical activity is still nearly impossible.
In a recent research review, we reported that children, youth and adults with disabilities are up to 62 per cent less likely to meet the World Health Organization’s physical activity guidelines than the general population. This is because people with disabilities face over 200 barriers to doing physical activity, two of the largest being built environments and transportation. For example, most public playgrounds, swimming pools, and outdoo...
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