Inclusive Sports
Sport as an Agent for Positive Change
Summary | Mixed Ability sports highlights the idea that by playing together, we can break down stereotypes and make communities more inclusive. This model has athletes with and without intellectual and other developmental disabilities (IDD) compete together on the same team as equals. Mixed Ability focuses on the idea that everyone has the right to take risks and belong to a team.
We often celebrate the power sport has to transform the world. It is known as an unrelenting force for positive development and peace and it can make us all healthier and happier. But is that really so? The outcomes of sport and physical activity are many and compounded, but once we scratch the surface the reality is far more complicated. For instance, if we look at the sports participation of people who have intellectual and other developmental disabilities (IDD) the story is not as positive.
According to a survey conducted by IFF Research for Sport England’s 2023-24 Annual Disability and Activity Survey, people with disabilities are twice as likely to be physically inactive compared to the non-disabled population (bit.ly/4tSqwgD).
A World Health Organization (WHO) fact sheet (bit.ly/42d6Ho4) notes that disabled people* tend to die earlier, have poorer health, and experience more limitations in everyday functioning compared to the rest of the population.
A 2020 report from the Health Foundation (z.umn.edu/391-mc2) found that disabled people face the worst health inequities, arising from a wealth of societal inequalities, stigma, discrimination, poverty, exclusion from education and employment, and further barriers faced in the health system itself. These multilayered disparities lead disabled people to be twice as likely to develop comorbid conditions such as depression, diabetes, obesity or heart disease, to access worse health and social care and, in some cases, to be at a higher risk of premature and avoidable deaths as reported by the LeDeR in 2026 (www.kcl.ac.uk/research/leder).
With that in mind, one might think that sport and physical activity should be sold at the supermarket, prescribed by doctors, and prioritised by policymakers as one of the greatest assets in the toolbox to help tackle social and health inequalities. And yet, widespread, mainstream participation is still an optical illusion. Of course, we celebrate the achievements of Paralympic and Special Olympics athletes, and we are all probably familiar with some well-meaning disability-specific projects in our communities, where participants are grouped according to their impairments or conditions and allowed to play with “others like them.”
But what if the focus of people’s aspirations is not to represent their country at the elite level, nor to attend a social club run by a local disability service provider? What if we were to normalise community-based participation, putting the emphasis on competitiveness, of course, but also on enjoyment, skill development, and increasing social capital, pride, sense of belonging, and self-determination? If sport is for all individuals as stated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (bit.ly/4d8dcxn), and we are genuine about advocating for full equality and elimination of discrimination in all areas of society, isn’t it strange that sport is that one space where disability-only activities and competitions not only exist, but are celebrated?
The Mixed Ability Model
Mixed Ability is a model for inclusive sports built from grassroots participation, where people with and without disabilities play alongside each other in community-based clubs and activities as equal members without being separated, graded, or classified. International Mixed Ability Sports (www.mixedabilitysports.org), based in Bradford, England, is a non-profit organization that provides information, assistance, guidance, and resources to participants, clubs, coaches, and federations that want to start or implement Mixed Ability activities.
Mixed Ability sports are not adapted. They use the same rules and regulations established by the national governing bodies for any given discipline, with only minor, reasonable adjustments to ensure parity of participation.
The model stems from the lack of opportunities for people with disabilities to join in mainstream community sports. It defies patronising and overprotecting attitudes and the limiting of assumptions about people’s abilities. In England, the story began in 2009, when Anthony Brooke (z.umn.edu/391-mc3), a then 28-year-old, Bradford-born man with cerebral palsy and learning disabilities, expressed his desire to play full-contact rugby. Anthony had been a life-long supporter of his local club but was only granted access to the pitch as a waterboy for the first team. The reason, unsurprisingly, was the club’s concerns with potential injuries, and they signposted him to the tag versions of the game instead.
Anthony was adamant that he had the right to take risks and make decisions for himself. He therefore used the assistance of his life-skill tutor at the Workers’ Educational Association, Mark Goodwin, to canvas the Rugby Football Union and get them on board. The first session included four disabled players and six coaches at a neighbouring club, with a sense of excitement but little direction. Anthony started to recruit players from the first and second teams to join the new group, whilst Mark’s links with education and social care allowed for enlisting more participants. They also received advice from a similar Welsh project, the Llanelli Warriors, which was created from integrating service users with non-disabled staff members at their local day centre. In that way, the Bumble Bees Barbarians were born.
Over the past 15 years, the Mixed Ability model has grown well beyond rugby and the United Kingdom to become a social movement in community sports. It aspires to radically change the way we think of, join in, and enjoy sport, leading to a fairer and more equitable society.
The model’s manifesto (z.umn.edu/391-mc5) sets out its guiding principles. Mixed Ability recognises that – although sport is often widely associated with positive outcomes at the personal and societal level – there are still too many people excluded or segregated because of stigma, prejudice or the way society is organised. Grassroots sport, therefore, can also be responsible for excluding vast societal groups, allowing access only to charitable, elite, or segregated activities. Mixed Ability confronts this not by creating new “special” sports, rules or regulations. It also works from within existing structures to challenge the status quo, creating equitable opportunities to affirm everyone’s right to be present, as full members, in our community clubs.
Co-production and Lived Experience
Aspects related to representation and decision-making processes are not afterthoughts in the Mixed Ability movement. As evidenced by Jen Dyer and Rachel Sandford IMAS harnesses the lived experience of disabled participants to co-produce and co-deliver educational and training resources. The IMAS trainers, the engine of the organisation, are experts with lived experience of disability who have successfully overcome exclusion and other barriers to participation, and are involved in each aspect of IMAS’s operations, from delivering training to stakeholders to shape and implement strategies sitting on the board of directors.
With this approach, Mixed Ability wants to reaffirm its commitment to the social model of disability, acknowledging ableism as one of the main obstacles to disabled people’s participation in sport. Mixed Ability firmly believes that the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has not yet been fully implemented, hence the need for a new take on the sport we practice on our doorsteps. This message resonates across the globe.
Global Expansions and Challenges
The expansion of Mixed Ability sports has been remarkable, with activities now present in more than 20 countries and across several disciplines such as rugby, basketball, rowing, cricket, squash and floor curling. Mixed Ability remains the only community sports proposition worldwide where people of all abilities can play competitive, mainstream sports alongside each other.
Mixed Ability remains one of the only community sports propositions worldwide where people of all abilities can play competitive, mainstream sports alongside each other.
Although this growth is steady and organic, and typically championed by participants and coaches with lived disability experience, huge challenges remain. Mixed Ability challenges the very orthodoxy of sport, and questions the role of committed guardians.
The model also exposes and tries to deconstruct the engrained dynamics of power, whether that is the medical model of disability, ableist language, or the widespread othering (us v. them), meaning that it relies on a capillary educational work that takes time to reach a tipping point.
There are no quick solutions. Sport will change (and true inclusion will happen) only when the wider society evolves. That requires strategic alliances and systemic work that inevitably involves other societal domains such as education and health. It also requires political, cultural, and structural reforms.
Mixed Ability strives to change our world, one club and one match at a time, attracting new participants, re-engaging and retaining old ones, offering a practical example that another way forward is possible. And one that works for everyone.