It's Disability History Month and to mark the occasion, BWSW's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead, Cathy Hughes, has pulled together some facts and figures...

Did you know that, according to the World Health Organisation:

• Over 1 billion people live with a disability
• The numbers of people with a disability are increasing
• Almost everyone is likely to experience some form of disability – temporary or permanent – at some point in their lives 
• People with a disability were and continue to be disproportionately affected during the Covid 19 pandemic

In the UK, according to the latest stats from the ONS, approximately 1 in 5 people have a disability or long-term life-threatening health condition – 22% of the population. This statistic is increasing as the UK’s population ages. Within the English regions there is further disparity with, for example, many disabled people living in poverty and being out of work – 27% of the population in the North East has a disability, whilst the figure is 19% in the South East.

In sport, we know that disabled people are far less likely to be active in comparison to non-disabled people. Sport England’s latest Active Lives survey reports that disabled people are almost twice as likely to be physically inactive (43%), compared to those without a disability (23%). This inequality grows as the number of impairments a person has increases, so that 51% of people with three or more impairments are inactive.

It’s important to understand why people are inactive and the barriers they face rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach, particularly for people from specific groups or communities. Disabled people are not one generic group; they will all have different backgrounds and experiences that have impacted positively or negatively on their participation in sport and society. What we do know is that economic and health factors increase the barriers that anyone can feel, such as cost, lack of time, confidence, knowing where to go and opportunity.

BWSW Disability Taster Session

With this in mind, BWSW has been working with a number of key partners to develop and deliver disability taster sessions, several of which took place during the 2022 season.  There's more on some of these sessions in the winter edition of the BWSW magazine, out later this month, and delivered free to our members. 

The Activity Alliance – has a range of resources, information and training on disability sport at https://www.activityalliance.org.uk

Have a look at this inspirational video we shot in 2021...