Some of the terms for sport for an individual with a disability:
- Adaptive Sport (US)
- Adapted Sport (International)
- Handicapped Sport (Out dated)
- Disability Sport (UK and others)
- Deportes Para Personas Con Discapacitados (Spanish speaking world)
- Disabled Sport (another way)
- Sport for Individuals with Disabilities (a mouthful)
- Sport (The way it all should be stated)
What's in a name? Some would say a lot. Others just desire to get the world to acknowledge that sport is sport regardless of your ability level. That everyone at one time will experience disability then the name really won't matter it will be called... well, sport.
Through my experiences with adaptive sport (this is the term that I have grown up with so it kind of stuck) I have heard numerous descriptive terms for adaptive sport, some are list above. When I tell people that I teach such things as adaptive skiing the next question out of their mouth without fail is "What's adaptive skiing?" Then I am happy to put on my educator hat and inform them that I teach individuals with disabilities. That we focus on abilities and that the adaptations make up for slight or severe deficiencies. I then remind my audience that these individuals can be from all walks of life, experience both physical or intellectual disabilities and enjoy recreational activities or chase competition. I then ask my audience to tell me what they do for fun, sport or recreation. Some offer enthusiastic responses and other are stumped.
The name which we call sport obviously differs around the world. Several adaptive sports and many adaptive athletes are coming more and more into the main stream, and this is great. Yes many people still confuses the Special Olympics (for individuals with intellectual disabilities) and Paralympics (for individuals with physical disabilities) but this will change with time and some effort . For now we can consider what we call sport and what's in a name.
-RAM
