Abstract
The 2020 outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19 has raised concern about the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations, especially people with disabilities (Kwok, 2020; Smith & Judd, 2020). Connectivity with the disability population at engagement points like exercise facilities have remained a concern. Fitzgerald, Stride, and Drury (2020) argued that the global lockdown in response to COVID-19 “continues to magnify the differences between non-disabled and disabled people in sport,” which “firmly situates disabled people at the margins and secondary to the core business of sport” (p. 4). The purpose of this study is to explore how community leaders use sport to serve the disability population during a global pandemic. This case study focuses on the experiences of three community leaders in Uganda, South Africa, and Senegal as they used sport to serve the disability population during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employes contingency theory (Fiedler, 1971) in exploring the approaches of community leaders as well as DeLuca’s (2013) interdisciplinary framework for education inclusivity. Specifically, the manner in which community leaders serve people with disabilities is examined. Three participants have been recruited and agreed to participate, with data collection set for fall 2020 and data analysis to begin shortly thereafter. Semi-structured interviews will focus on the community-based sport initiatives for people with disabilities to gain an understanding of how services may have been altered due to COVID-19.
Presenters
Cathy Mc KayAssistant Professor, Kinesiology, James Madison University, Virginia, United States Joshua Pate
Associate Professor, Hart School of Hospitality, Sport, and Recreation Management, James Madison University, Virginia, United States Dr. Javier Perez
Professor, Health and Human Performance, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain Timothy Mirabito
Assistant Professor, Journalism, Ithaca College, New York, United States Carolyn Spellings
Clinical Faculty, Center for Sport, Peace, and Society, University of Tennessee, United States Sarah Hillyer
Sport 4 Peace
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2021 Special Focus—Sport and Society in Crisis
KEYWORDS
Disability Community Sport Pandemic Crisis COVID-19
