Barriers to participation in sport to the inclusion of persons with Dissertation

Barriers to participation in sport to the inclusion of persons with disabilities - Dissertation Example ..........................................03 1.4 Barriers and facilitators in disability sports.....................................04 1.5 Strategy for Literature Review........................................................06 2. LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................08 2.1 Theoretical framework...................................................................08 2.2 Relevant researches......................................................................09 2.3 Findings.........................................................................................20 2.4 Discussion.....................................................................................24 3. CONCLUSION....................................................................................................27 REFERENCES LIST OF GRAPHS AND DIAGRAMS Page 2.1: Barriers faced by the disabled on sports participation.....................................21 3.1: Categories of barriers faced by disabled in sports participation......................28 ABSTRACT This paper aimed at identifying the barriers faced by disabled young adults and teenagers as they pursue participation into sports especially in the UK. The paper also aimed at identifying the gaps in existing knowledge about barriers faced by the disabled in sports participation. The research was based on a review of literature. Many relevant research studies available on different online data bases were reviewed and included in the study. Based on the data from findings, a content analysis was then conducted to identify the most common and less common barriers faced by the disabled in sports participation. The findings were presented in graphical form. Based on the discussion, the barriers identified were classified as internal and external and a model based on this classification was developed and diagrammatically presented. The paper concluded with some recommendations based on the gaps identified in the literature, for the future researchers in the field. 1. INTRODUCTION   This exploratory paper attempts to explore the possible existing barriers faced by the disabled young people as they seek inclusion in sports all over the world, especially in UK. There are two main aims of this study: one is to find out the barriers faced by disabled youth seeking inclusion and participation in sports and secondly, to identify the gaps in existing knowledge in the relevant field. Following is brief explanation of the meaning of sports, definition of the disabled, importance of sports for the disabled and barriers faced by the disabled as they seek participation in sports. 1.1 Sports Sport England (2010) follow and recognize the definition of sports determined by the European Sports Charter (1993). The definition says that â€Å"any form of physical activity, which via participation aims at expressing and improving physical fitness and mental well being, forming social relationships and obtaining results in competition at all levels is included in sports.’ (European Sports Charter, 1993; Cited in Sport England, 2004). Carefully conducted surveys by GHS (1993, 1996) cited in Sport England (2004) aimed at determining the rate of sports participation of people in different age groups identified a drop in the percentage of young people (aged: 16 – 19 years) who engage in sports. Another noteworthy finding of the survey was that this rate further decreases when young adults graduate and enter practical life, outside the