The Benefits of Adaptive Recreation

At Possibilities Park, we know the power of community in athletics and we know that, too often, athletes with disabilities face barriers in accessing and integrating into athletic communities.

A 2011 study from SUNY Cortland, a global leader in the studies of adapted physical education, confirms the presence of these barriers despite legislative efforts to the contrary, and decries their negative impact on the lives of young people with disabilities. Researcher Ted Fay, PhD concluded in this study that “despite the enactment of public law and policies that have facilitated some very modest gains over the past 40 years, young men and women with disabilities are still marginalized and routinely excluded from the most basic of opportunities to engage in sport, recreation, leisure and physical activities” (Fay, 2011). The result, certainly, is that youth with disabilities are often denied one of the most fundamental experiences of childhood: the joy of group play. However, there is even more at stake. 

Participation in sport provides much more to a young person than mere enjoyment. Most importantly, it provides youth—and especially youth with physical or intellectual disabilities—with a “heightened sense of competence and opportunities to express their ‘true’ selves” (Groff and Kleiber, 2001). There is no human right more fundamental than the right to know who we are and what we are capable of. In the absence of adapted athletic programs, athletes with disabilities are at great risk for being denied this basic human right.

Therefore, for young people with disabilities, meaningful participation in athletics can provide not just an afternoon or a week of happy feelings; rather, it can support a lifelong journey of confidence, agency, and self-actualization.