How to Include Students with Disabilities in Competitive Sports

With inclusion becoming more popular among school districts for students with disabilities, these students are often not included in extracurricular competitive sports. Many physical education (PE) coaches report not feeling adequately prepared to coach a student with a disability in their program. There are also many coaches that have less than favorable attitudes towards inclusion because of a negative past experience. Education specialists are also included in this training to learn what role they should take in including a student with a disability in an extracurricular competitive sport. Students with disabilities miss out on the experiences that typical students benefit from because of adult attitudes and limitations put upon this population. The purpose of this project is to train coaches of competitive sports on how to include these students and how to work with the education specialist on site to provide equitable experiences for all students and reduce the negative experiences that lead to teachers and coaches to have unfavorable attitudes towards inclusion practices.