New report highlights experiences of Disabled people around physical activity
Activity Alliance have released a report, involving more than 2000 participants, that shows four in five Disabled people want to be more active but demand is not being met. This report complements Sport England’s Active Lives Adult Survey, but goes into greater detail around perceptions, experiences and important issues due to the focus on Disabled people.
Activity Alliance’s Annual Disability and Activity Survey is supported by Sport England. It gives an in-depth comparison of Disabled and non-Disabled adults’ experiences of sport and activity.
Key findings include:
- Four in five (81%) Disabled adults want to do more activity than they currently do compared with fewer than three in five (57%) non-Disabled people.
- Just four in 10 (40%) Disabled people feel they are given the opportunity to be as active as they would like to be compared with seven in 10 (71%) non-Disabled people.
- Disabled people are half as likely as non-Disabled people to agree that ‘sport’ is for someone like them (32% vs 63%).
- Seven in ten Disabled people are motivated to be active to improve or maintain their physical health.
- Two in five (41%) Disabled people said a fear of losing benefits prevents them from trying to be more active.
- Two in three (67%) Disabled people said they would listen to GPs, doctors and nurses about taking part in activity.
Tim Hollingsworth, Chief Executive, Sport England, says:
“At Sport England we are all too aware that there’s an unacceptably high gap in activity levels between Disabled and non-Disabled people, and that despite a desire to be more active, many Disabled people are missing out on the range of benefits that can be gained through physical activity.
“Activity Alliance’s first Annual Survey increases our insight into this issue and throws down a challenge to all in the physical activity sector: to use this new understanding to make sure that far more Disabled people can get active in a way that is right for them. It’s a challenge that personally I know we must take up.”
