UK Athletics: The First UKAbility Meeting

UK Athletics (UKA) hosted its first UKAbility meeting at the Alexander Stadium on Friday 20 April 2018 to begin the process of ensuring people with a disability or impairment feel included in all areas of the sport.

Representatives from UKA and the Home Countries – England Athletics, Scottish Athletics, Welsh Athletics and Athletics Northern Ireland – came together to review and address three key areas within athletics through a disability lens.

Focussing on inclusion for those with a disability or impairment through participation or as an official or as a spectator, recruitment, club accessibility and spectator experience were all discussed in depth at the inaugural meeting.

Following on from the initial review an action plan has been devised and the UKAbility group featuring UKA and all of the Home Countries will reconvene on a quarterly basis to monitor progress in terms of recruitment, club accessibility and spectator experience.

UKA Board Member and champion for UKAbility, Anne Wafula-Strike, said: “Sport changes the person with disability in an equally profound way by empowering them to realize their full potential and advocate for changes in society. I hope through this focus group we are able to identify some of the challenges and barriers to inclusion and come up with solutions in a form of a framework model. The framework could provide a way to tackle factors in the three main highlighted areas; recruitment, spectator experience, club accessibility. This will help open up more opportunities including up-to-date coaching, and competition in a safe and accessible areas.”

UKA Vice President and Equality, Diversity & Engagement Lead Donna Fraser, who chaired the meeting, said: “I wish to extend my thanks to everyone who attended our first UKAbility meeting. It was an extremely productive and thought-provoking session around three key areas impacting those with a disability or impairment. Our aim is to ensure people with a disability or impairment feel completely included in all areas of athletics and the group will continue to meet to discuss what we need to continue doing and what areas need further review or improvement.”