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GaituzSport has published the book “The impact of pshysical – sports activity on disabled women in the Basque Country”

GaituzSport R+D+i Area led by our colleague and researcher Sheila Romero da Cruz has published the book The impact of physical-sports activity on disABLED women in the Basque Country.”

This pioneering study explores the transformative power of sport as an empowerment and inclusion tool in depth.

Based on rigorous analysis and supported by GaituzSport experience, a benchmark in the field of inclusive physical activity, the book presents unpublished data and successful cases showing how sports participation contributes to disabled women’s improvement in health, wellbeing and social integration.

With the support of experts in the field of disability and inclusion, the GaituzSport study reveals the keys to tearing down the obstacles hindering full participation in society.

This book includes the powerful testimony of resilience and overcoming of 10 disabled women who do physical-sporting activities, proving sport is much more than exercise, i.e. it is a vehicle of equality and social change.

11 professionals with the following profiles: psychologists, trainers, instructors and social workers have also taken part in the process, who have supported the female protagonists throughout their sports careers. People, whose vision has enriched and completed the sports women’s discourse.

Some conclusions:

  • The reality observed has been diverse, showing different contexts and circumstances regarding the situation of disabled women in the Basque Country.
  • It has been observed throughout this study that the offer available to disabled women is chiefly regulated with little mention of non-competitive physical-sports practice.
  • It is essential disabled women have information and support to access normalised a physical-sporting offer thereby ensuring compliance with current legislation.
  • To foster participation it is important to take into account the context of the person in question, identify the barriers they encounter in the physical activity, likewise the facilitating agents to deal with said barriers.
  • It should be born in mind that each person’s specific barriers vary according to numerous factors, furthermore, apart from their disability or illness, previous experiences in sport and the context in which they occur are also involved.
  • Personalised attention may be the key knowing each woman’s characteristics and profiles increasing the levels of participation, creating attractive stimulating programmes and practices for disabled women.
  • These programmes should be run by professionals in this area, as well as having appropriate infrastructure adapted to the necessary conditions as set forth in Law 8/2022, of 30th June regarding access and exercising physical activity and sporting professions within the Basque Country; which establishes sports professionals must have the necessary skills to attend population diversity, including the disabled; furthermore, the Basque Law of Sport 12/2018 establishes the need to foster equal opportunities and inclusion of the disabled in sport.

To sum up, the road to full participation of disabled women in sports in the Basque Country requires a transformation contemplating both the offer of programmes and resources as well as personalised attention evaluating each woman’s specific needs. Cultural and social change needs to be fostered to ensure their inclusion and enable physical activity to become a tool of empowerment, wellbeing and social inclusion.

Acknowledgements:

At GaituzSport we would like to express our gratitude to all the women and professionals who took part, likewise the bodies sponsoring the study, for providing their knowledge regarding the disabled women collective within a physical-sports structural framework.

 

We encourage you to read the complete publication available via the following:

BOOK

Should you be interested in receiving further information or have any queries, please contact GaituzSport on Tel: 622022063

Discover how sport can be the incentive to transform lives and whole communities!

 

 

ABOUT US

GaituzSport was born in 2014 as a Social Innovation Project of the Basque Adapted Sports Federation, to respond to the reflections that emerged from the Euskadi Adapted Sports Plan 2015-2020.