The article for today’s reading deal with sports and disability. The article that I choose to reflect on is, “Accommodating Female Athletes with Disabilities.” The author, Ann Cody, feels that female athletes with disabilities should be more encouraged and embraced when it comes to participating in sport. The Women’s Sport Foundation, which has been reference multiple times through out the semester, has basically developed and outlined a guide to assist in increasing accessibility to women’s sports and fitness programs.
As much as Title IX has affected sports and female participation in a positive manner, it hasn’t done the same for female athletes with disabilities. The guideline presented by Ann Cody is this article has four steps: Seeking guidance, accessibility considerations, sport-specific integration, and promotion and outreach. I feel that female athletes with disabilities deserve more opportunities; they are sort of the forgotten due to their limited access to sports and fitness programs. A lot of attention for disabled athletes goes towards their male counterparts; nonetheless this is changing with the help of organizations like the Women’s Sport Foundation. I don’t think society encourages female athletes with disabilities nearly as much as they do males and I think this is one of the major factors with the lack of participation when it comes to females. Male and female athletes should come together and help each other overcome this barrier.
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As you mentioned, the Women's Sports Foundation is targeting women with disabilities to advocate for them to become more involved in sports. The WSF would like to see the NCAA do more to embrace athletes with disabilities. Considering how much resistance there has been to complying with Title IX when it comes to women, it is hard to envision that happening quickly for men and women with disabilities. Perhaps when the Olympics and Paralympics are held together in 2010, things will begin to change more at the collegiate level as well.
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