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Women with disabilities face double
discrimination--discrimination based on gender and
discrimination based disability. Women of color who
are disabled face yet a third type of discrimination...The
limited available statistics suggest that economically,
socially, and psychologically, women with disabilities
fare considerably worse than either women who are
nondisabled or men who are disabled.
(Women and Disability Awareness Project, 1989).
Disabled Women in
Sport
Throughout history, disability has
been closely linked with poverty, poor nutrition,
inadequate health care, lack of opportunity for exercise
and socialization, and stress. Women have been specifically
associated with nervous disorders, depression, and
mental illness. Basically, anything emotionally debilitating
has been assigned to the female.
Getting interested and involved in
sports is difficult for women and girls with disabilities
because of the limited exposure they get to sports,
especially when they are young. Those who become disabled
during their adult life, by things like accident or
illness, are many times already involved in athletics.
When that is the case, they are highly likely to remain
active in sports.
Disabled athletes often need to feel
empowered in order to get involved in athletics. Nondisabled
people learn sports primarily through their families
when they are children. Athletes with disabilities,
however, often attribute their participation and success
to self-motivation and friends. Women athletes who
become disabled later in life already have a support
system of teachers, coaches, friends, and partners
who still encourage them. Disabled athletes with encouraging,
supportive parents are often leaders in their sport
and community. They believe their success in leadership
is a result of good parenting.
Many athletes with disabilities of
all kinds agree that sports are an important way to
affirm their competence and worth. Sports sway the
focus from people's disabilities and place attention
on their abilities. Through sports, a person's skill
and expertise is valued and significant.
Statistics
Approximately 43 million people in
the United States have documented disabilities. This
figure includes almost 10% of all children, 30% of
young and middle-aged adults, and about half of the
population older than 65.
The United States has eight major
sport organizations for the disabled. They are modeled
after the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), which is
for nondisabled athletes. The organizations and their
founding dates are as follows: American Athletic Association
for the Deaf, 1945; National Wheelchair Athletic Association,
1956; National Handicapped Sports, 1967; Special Olympics
International, 1968; U.S. Association for Blind Athletes,
1976; U.S. Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association, 1978;
Dwarf Athletic Association of America, 1986; U.S.
Les Autres Association, 1986.
Since 1988 disabled athletes, except
for the deaf and mentally retarded, have been required
by international policy to compete at the same time
and place.
A 1991 Harris poll revealed that
nondisabled Americans have trouble relating to those
with disabilities. The poll broke down explicitly
how the nondisabled felt toward the disabled:
- 91% - admiration, people with disabilities
overcome so many barriers
- 74% - pity, because of their situation
- 58% - awkwardness or embarrassment,
due to lack of knowledge about how to behave
- 51% - lack of concern, belief that
disabled persons can manage okay
- 47% - fear, possibility that similar
disabilities can happen to oneself
- 18% - anger, disabled people cause
inconvenience
- 9% - resentment, disabled people
get special privileges
- 30% of nondisabled people surveyed
would be concerned if a coworker was disabled and
23% would be concerned about having a disabled supervisor.
- Physical disabilities, except for
arthritis and osteoporosis, are more common in males.
This helps to explain why women have limited access
to sports such as wheelchair basketball, tennis,
and track.
The Media: Sports
UnIllustrated
Information is scarce when it comes
to women with disabilities and even more limited for
disabled women in sport. The national news rarely
features women athletes who have overcome disability
barriers. This lack of attention creates few disabled
female athlete role models. Even television commercials
that show disabled athletes almost always choose male
models.
Journals specifically for the disabled
obviously provide adequate coverage of disabled athletes.
Magazines such as Sports n' Spokes; Palaestra:
The Forum of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation
for the Disabled; andDeaf Sports Review.
feature disabled people in sport. However, they do
not make up for the lack of equal-opportunity coverage
in the mainstream media, local and national, including
magazines like Sports Illustrated.
Subjects like sports psychology and
sociology largely ignore disability in textbooks and
journals. Even women's studies and women's athletics
can be faulted for poor coverage of disabled female
athletes. Women who participate in sport and who are
also disabled are rarely mentioned in these two arenas.
Disabilities in
the School
Disabled females involved in college
athletics are rarely honored or given much attention
on their campus. Exceptions do exist on a few college
campuses around the country. The University of Illinois
at Champaign and Wright State University in Ohio both
sponsor women's wheelchair basketball teams.
Texas Woman's University has awarded
one its highest honors to a disabled female athlete
in the past. The coveted alumnae award was given to
Sue Moucha, a Paralympic gold medalist. It was presented
with the same recognition and importance to Moucha
as it had been years earlier to Olympic gold medalist
Louise Ritter. The university did not divide their
athletes into two separate categories: nondisabled
and disabled. Instead, an athlete with cerebral palsy
and an able-bodied athlete were bestowed with the
same honor.
In 1992 at Slippery Rock University
of Pennsylvania, Roberta Abney and Dorothy Richey
established the precedent of equal coverage for ethnic
minorities and disabled athletes when describing opportunities
for minority women in sport. Their criteria posed
four questions: How do people with disabilities see
themselves? What disabilities are women most likely
to have? Does gender bias enter into diagnosis? How
do life experiences of women with disabilities face
double and triple discrimination?
Competition
Three international events follow
the nondisabled Olympic model of competitive sport.
They are Special Olympics, Paralympics, and Deaf Sport
and they each do a great deal to contribute to the
awareness of women athletes with disabilities.
The first Special Olympics took place
on July 20, 1968 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.
This international movement began in order to show
that people with mental retardation were capable of
remarkable achievement in sports and beyond. In 1991
the Special Olympics brought in 6,000 athletes from
100 countries creating the largest sporting event
in the world. To honor the 30th anniversary of the
games, on July 20, 1998, Special Olympics launched
a world-wide celebration that will culminate in July
of 1999. The theme of the event is to honor the athletes,
families, and volunteers that have been significant
in changing the perceptions about mental retardation.
The International Paralympic Committee
was officially founded in 1989. However, Olympic-type
games for athletes with disabilities were organized
as early as 1960 in Rome. These games revolved around
the physically disabled only, especially those with
spinal cord injuries. In 1976, games in Toronto began
including other disabled athletes like the blind and
amputees. Now, that the Paralympics has been officially
recognized, it holds its games in the same year and
country as the Olympics.
Sportsclubs for the deaf have been
in existence since 1888. The deaf have never been
involved in games that include other disabilities
and still organize their own world games, the Silent
Games. Deaf Sport is another type of international
games that are held the year following the Olympics.
People who participate in Deaf Sport have a hearing
loss of 55 decibels or greater. They see themselves
as separate, culturally and linguistically, from the
disabled community. Most athletes use sign language
at their games, and press coverage of their events
are gradually growing.
[Source: "Women With Disabilities,"
Claudine Sherrill]
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