Adaptive Sports Programs for Disabled Veterans and Disabled Members of the Armed Forces (VA)

Guided by framing theory, this study identifies qualitative differences in the coverage of college wheelchair and able-bodied basketball teams. The sample consisted of 160 wheelchair basketball and 160 able-bodied basketball articles published over five seasons in seven online, student-led news sources at universities with wheelchair sports programs. This analysis contrasts previous studies of adaptive sports coverage, which focused primarily on professional journalists’ portrayals of the Paralympics. The framing of wheelchair basketball players as high-performance, physical athletes was scarce when compared to the coverage of able-bodied athletes. Overall, wheelchair basketball was portrayed as lacking legitimacy. When performance of wheelchair basketball players and teams was noted, references to performance statistics, emphasis on the physical and psychological demands of the sport, and the use of literary devices were scarce. In contrast, able-bodied players were framed as talented, legitimate athletes and warriors fighting important battles for their teams. Critical disability theoretical implications are discussed. A discussion of practical implications for adaptive sports journalists, student sports reporters, and collegiate wheelchair basketball concludes the study.

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The Increasing Role of Disability Issues in U.S. Sports Law

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190465957.013.8 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Dionne Koller

Keyword(s):

Sports Law ◽

Legal Doctrine ◽

Individuals With Disabilities ◽

Persons With Disabilities ◽

Adaptive Sports ◽

Athletic Competition ◽

Sports Programs ◽

The Future ◽

Sports Programming

This chapter discusses the leading issues involving individuals with disabilities who participate, or seek to participate, in U.S. sports. This analysis highlights the most important issues in the interscholastic, intercollegiate, professional, and Olympic sports contexts. This chapter asserts that while current legal doctrine focuses on prohibiting discrimination and accommodating “qualified” persons with disabilities within existing sports programs, more should be done to expand adaptive sports programming. In this way, law can be used to help expand our current understandings of who is an “athlete” and what is a “sport,” so that in the future, more individuals with disabilities can enjoy the benefits of athletic competition.

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Demographic and Functional Characteristics of National Veterans Wheelchair Games Participants: A Cross-sectional Study

Military Medicine ◽

10.1093/milmed/usaa398 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Cecelia Rose Lee-Hauser ◽

Richard M Schein ◽

Vince J Schiappa ◽

Alison L Pruziner ◽

Dave Tostenrude ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Sports Participation ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Daily Routine ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Adaptive Sports ◽

Sports Programs ◽

The Impact

Abstract Introduction Although many studies report the impact of adaptive sports and recreation on quality of life for people with disabilities across several age groups, few have focused on the Veteran population. The purpose of this study was to establish a baseline of common characteristics of the Veteran population that participated in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) in 2017 and 2018, including their perception on how their participation is associated with function and social factors. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study was implemented as part of a quality assurance collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and the Veterans Administration National Veterans Sports Programs and Special Events. Demographic and quality-of-life data were collected through the Functional Mobility Assessment (FMA) and associated Uniform Dataset as well as the Sports Participation Outcome Research Tool and Comprehensive Uniform Survey (SPORTACUS). This report provides and discusses the descriptive analyses that were performed on the data and establishes a framework to assess the impact of sports and exercise for Veterans with disabilities. Results A sample of 426 Veterans, 87% who were male and an average population age of 56 years old, reported high FMA scores on each of 10 items (daily routine, comfort, health, operate, reach, transfer, personal care, indoor mobility, outdoor mobility, and transportation) along with SPORTACUS scores scoring above 5, based on a 1-6 scoring scale (1 being “completely disagree” and 6 being “completely agree”), on each domain indicating sports participation is associated with their ability to function and participate in the community. Conclusion Based on these results, it can be concluded for this military Veteran population that participation in a large, organized adaptive sports programs such as the NVWG has a positive association with daily function, quality of life, community participation, and use of higher quality assistive technology.

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Paralympijský sport jako společenský fenomén

Studia sportiva ◽

10.5817/sts2016-2-3 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 34-43

Author(s):

Tomáš Zelenka ◽

Martin Kudláček

Keyword(s):

International Organizations ◽

Sport Activity ◽

Positive Influence ◽

The Other ◽

Social Phenomenon ◽

Disabled People ◽

Adaptive Sports ◽

Activity Involvement ◽

Sports Programs ◽

The Status

Sport for persons is promptly and naturally evolving as social phenomenon. This fact is documented worldwide variety of evidence. It is not only about the status and popularity of the Paralympic Games, it is not only dynamically growing number of disabled athletes and the growing range of adaptive sports, sports programs and various levels of competitions, but side by side with it the development of relevant national and international organizations and institutions, and even in some cases linking or merging sports platforms of ablebodied and handicapped athletes. Sport in the context of disabled athletes become parallely extroverted device demonstrations of their athletic abilities and also introverted medium having a positive influence on the biological, psychological and sociological human nature. On the other hand disabled people sport activity involvement is unfortunately very low.

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A sense of betrayal

Journal of Public Mental Health ◽

10.1108/jpmh-05-2016-0023 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 6-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mo Stewart

Keyword(s):

Participant Observation ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Content Type ◽

Disabled Veterans ◽

British Military ◽

Working Age ◽

Preventable Harm ◽

Profound Disability ◽

The Impact ◽

Welfare Reforms

Purpose No civilian has any comprehension of life in British military forces, or the impact of the removal of that life when unexpectedly returned to “Civvy Street” following the onset of a permanent illness or profound disability, with the gradual realisation that support in the civilian world means that a disabled veteran is just one of a crowd. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Participant observation. Findings Welfare reforms together with austerity measures introduced by the British government are causing preventable harm to the most vulnerable in society. Research limitations/implications This paper was written by invitation and is limited by word length. Practical implications Older working-age disabled veterans are being abandoned by the state and suffer due to a change in government social policy. Social implications Disregarding the suffering and preventable harm created in society by the ongoing welfare reforms will have consequences that will need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, as the often tragic consequences are eventually alerted to the public. Originality/value A demonstration that the older working-age disabled veterans are being harmed by welfare reforms and the armed forces covenant has been breached.

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