Thursday 22 September 2016

Dyspraxia and the Paralympics? (disability sport)

i've decided to write this blog after seeing the latest video from Krystal on the Paralympics and some disabilities not being included which you can see here http://bit.ly/2d88WQ8
im going to start by also linking to the article by the Guardian that krystal mentions in her video http://bit.ly/2cHmVOv it wasn't until i first saw this article a year or so ago that i was aware there ever was any sporting competition/category that allowed people with dyspraxia and similar conditions to compete against each other which is the S17 category.the dyspraxia foundation also put out a statement urging the international Paralympic committee to reconsider their decision http://bit.ly/2cI0d98
from what i understand from the article in the guardian,this category has not been included in the Paralympics but has been in other national and international disability events, but now the S17 category in the view of the international Paralympic committee (IPC) does not exist and in the article it is mentioned that the amateur swimming association and British swimming are not including/supporting this category anymore due to the fact that these disabilities are not internationally recognized e.g. Britain being the only country that recognizes these conditions as disabilities. however other sports may have different views and may be able to support a category for these conditions in their sport for example the football association in England has a section for learning impairments but these impairments have to impact sporting performance in some way i do believe in football atleast at an amateur level learning impairments are included in the cerebral palsy 7-aside game sometimes.
in my view this exclusion of disability seems wrong and especially so from the IPC as a comment in the article says the Paralympic legacy is inclusion and this seems to be exclusion especially as there is no event for those with dyspraxia and/or similar conditions to compete against each other as the special Olympics also does not have a category for dyspraxia or any SpLD and Asperger's (high functioning autism) and eligibility to the special Olympics is very similar to the Paralympic category of S14 for athletes with learning disabilities but is judged on IQ and as Krystal mentions in her video many people who are neurodiverse actually have quite high IQ's so those who were eligible for the S17 criteria are not likely to be eligible for the S14 category or the special Olympics whose criteria you can see here http://bit.ly/2cIkPwk
however having said all of this due to the nature of conditions such as dyspraxia and similar conditions such as they can affect different people to very different levels plus how common they are. this means that there is a good possibility that there are elite able bodied and para-athletes that may actually have dyspraxia (whether they are aware of it or not) but many sports have a culture of making sure there are no signs of weakness shown or anything that could be considered a weakness this leads to people not being open about it (especially during their careers) so there ends up being no role models for young aspiring athletes/sportspeople in the same situation causing a vicious cycle although i did recently see something about a rugby player being open about having dyspraxia which may over time become very helpful.
hopefully this blog has made this situation as clear as possible and ive tried to link to as many of the documents that ive used as well as using my experience having looked into this before.

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