Collaborative co-produced sports events are aiming to create an equitable playing field for every athlete who wants to compete.
Nationwide, communities and organizations are realizing the value of co-produced sports events that create opportunities for athletes with disabilities. Organizations such as Move United, Special Olympics, the United States Association of Blind Athletes, and the U.S. Paralympics specialize in competitions and recreation opportunities for people with disabilities. Co-produced events make space for disabled and non-disabled competitors to participate in the same events.
The concept behind co-production is simple: para-athletes ought to be the active and primary planners behind the events they participate in. Advocates for co-production say the best planners for para-athletic events are the para-athletes themselves.
What’s emerging is aligned with the “nothing about us, without us” movement, according to Justin Haegele, associate professor in health and physical education and director for movement, health, and disability at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. He explains this philosophy aims to place people with disabilities as active participants in both planning and competing in sports and recreation events.
“The idea is…to construct sporting events and opportunities with disabled people, for disabled people,” Haegele says.
“For so long, whether it’s a sporting event or curriculum in schools or an after-school sports experience, for the most part, our field has taken the advice of non-disabled partners or stakeholders without ever talking about [disabled people’s] needs,” he says. “We have a lot of practices we say are great, but we don’t talk with the people who the practices are intended for.”
Although some major sports events such as the Boston Marathon have para-athletics divisions for wheelchair and handcycle users, runners with disabilities, and duos, Haegele says the idea of co-producing sports events is still somewhat new.
Seeking equity
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in four adults in the United States has some type of disability. Recognizing the importance of inclusion is a vital first step, but co-produced events aspire to fully consider how to meet disabled participants’ needs.
Dr. Andrew M. Colombo-Dougovito is an assistant professor of sport pedagogy and motor behavior in the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation at the University of North Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He also serves on the Advocacy and Policy Committee for the National Consortium for Physical Education for Individuals with Disabilities (NCPEID). A former physical education educator who primarily worked with autistic students and their families, Colombo-Dougovito says his research now scrutinizes society for barriers limiting opportunities or access for disabled people.
“I’ve come to recognize how disability is more than just a set of impairments, that often the greatest limiting factor for any individual is not one’s disability, but society’s inability to accommodate for them,” Colombo-Dougovito said in his 2022 TEDx talk, We Live in a Disabling Society, But We Don’t Have To.
“When I think of co-producing, it’s about shared autonomy…where people with disabilities are allowed to have a voice in whatever the event might be, the language used, any type of accommodations that are provided, and so on,” he says.
“It doesn’t make things 100 percent fair, but it tries to make it as equitable as possible,” Colombo-Dougovito says. “Anybody deserves the right to try, at least.”
He added, however, the production of inclusive sports and recreation—and inclusion in society in general—still largely depends on non-disabled people.
Starting small
Haegele and Colombo-Dougovito both believe co-produced sports, for now, are primarily grassroots events happening at local levels and in schools more than at larger sporting events. For example, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHSA) reports Unified Sports programs are in more than 5,000 schools in the United States.
The Unified Sports program adopts the approach pioneered by the Special Olympics by offering to join people with and without disabilities on the same teams. These sports league pairs students who have intellectual disabilities with non-disabled students to be teammates for training and competition.
These programs also create opportunities for students with disabilities to play football, baseball, golf, volleyball, and more. Without Unified Sports, disabled students often don’t otherwise get a chance to play on their school sports teams.
“I think you will see it more, but I don’t know if it will be tomorrow or in a decade,” says Haegele. “I think it’s critical, and the further along [co-production] gets and the more attention [it gets] will be representative of how we’re thinking about and treating disabled people. For so long we’ve treated disabled people like their opinions don’t matter. I think society, in general, is changing perceptions on disabled people.”
Another cause for greater inclusion is Dr. Cathy McKay’s annual Paralympic Skill Lab (PSL) in Harrisonburg, Va. McKay is a kinesiology professor at James Madison University, and the PSL brings in world-class disabled athletes to teach non-disabled students and to simulate adaptive sports. A primary goal of the lab is to create positive attitudes toward inclusive practices and disability.
“Nationally, the events that welcome disabled and non-disabled athletes are often related to university and community recreation programs, where anyone can play [who has] an interest in that sport,” McKay said.
James Madison University’s recreation program hosts a wheelchair basketball tournament as part of its intramural sports offerings, McKay said. Similar opportunities are available at the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Florida, Oregon State University, Syracuse University, and Clemson University.
McKay said there are organizations throughout the United States that seek to involve individuals of all abilities in adaptive sports, and they host events that allow everyone to participate. Organizations such as Move United based in Rockville, Md., and Sportable, based in Richmond, Va., have schedules of classes and special events on their websites.
Lakeshore Foundation, based in Birmingham, Ala., provides online classes as part of its inclusive programming. To encourage other organizations to become disability friendly, the foundation sells a guidebook, Disability Friendly: How to Move from Clueless to Inclusive, written by John D. Kemp, Lakeshore Foundation’s president and CEO.
For example, it suggests designing events offering a diverse mix of team and individual sports. Likewise, events should provide options for disabled and non-disabled athletes, such as wheelchair basketball, power soccer, swimming, and track and field.
Colombo-Dougovito says non-disabled people and society, in general, should take the lead to create inclusive sports and recreation for those who have disabilities.
He also says para-athletes have been”burned” in the past by people who over-promise and under-deliver. Future endeavors must be careful to avoid pitfalls of the past.
“If folks are really into the idea of co-producing events and living up to the meaning of what co-producing should be, that means disabled folks are at the table…We can actualize this, but it’s going to take thinking in a different way than we have been.”
Skier and runner Lindsay Ball, who has a visual impairment, is a doctoral student studying adapted physical education at Old Dominion University. Ball also was a panelist for the Portland Trail Blazers’ Rip City Unplugged: Ableism, Athletes, and Adaptive Sports event, noting the NBA team wants to make its venue more accessible.
Ball was a ski racer for the Team USA 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, and she’s competed in several marathons that are becoming more inclusive for people of all abilities. This year, Ball was one of 30 runners in the visually impaired category of the Boston Marathon.
“I’ve done road races and triathlons and other running events from 10Ks to marathons. Some events are now incorporating para-athlete or disabled categories,” Ball explains.
Ball believes events accommodating and welcoming people with disabilities are becoming more common and but these advances are not always apparent.
However, unless sports events are run by organizations directly serving disabled people or the events already have co-producing in place, Ball says in her experience it’s often up to a disabled individual to ask to be included and seek necessary accommodations.
“For me, I spent a lot of time just participating any way and fitting in,” Ball said. “The change we’re seeing [towards co-production] is on a more personal level. I also think it’s grassroots and slow going. A lot of disabled people still aren’t participating because they had a bad experience or maybe they were turned away,” Ball said.
No matter how well-planned and inclusive co-produced events may be, Ball notes the attitudes and sometimes unpredictable behavior of non-disabled athletes are hurdles people with disabilities continually face.
“The other participants in events are more of a barrier. They see disabled people participating and their attitude is patronizing a little bit,” she adds “I think that’s more of the issue right now—not the event coordinators themselves. They’re doing everything within their power to make events as inclusive as possible.”
