ON THE FRONT LINES: Q&A ON INCLUDING CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN COMMUNITY RECREATION ACTIVITIES with Stuart J. Schleien, Ph.D., CTRS, CLP
What are some of the biggest barriers to the participation of children with disabilities in community recreation programs?
Although federal and state mandates in the past two decades, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), prohibit discrimination against children with disabilities and have paved the way for all children to live, learn, and play with their peers in typical environments, many obstacles remain. These barriers to inclusive services may be encountered at any stage of the recreation programming process.
Problems encountered by participants and recreation professionals alike may be related to poor personal or professional attitudes, stereotypical thinking, individual skill deficits, or any number of environmental factors, such as the absence of physical (e.g., transportation) and fiscal resources, and lack of qualified staff to serve people of varying abilities.
What are some strategies that community recreation programs can use to become more inclusive?
The fact that several laws require organizations and agencies totheir doors to people of all abilities is not nearly enough. As practical, warm-hearted citizens, neighbors, and community leaders, it is necessary to recognize that inclusion in community recreation is about much more than meeting the minimal requirements of the laws. Successful social inclusion requires that major stakeholders adopt a philosophy and value system that reflects the right of every individual to participate actively.
However, there are no easy fixes to transform exclusive or segregated recreation programs into socially inclusive ones. These efforts require time, preparation, and collaboration among many people, including children, parents, teachers, and therapeutic recreation specialists. Removing attitudinal barriers and fear by acknowledging the negative views that certain staff and participants might have toward children with disabilities, and by designing a plan to improve them, is an excellent way to get started. By allowing the participants, agencies, and the community to experience the uniqueness that every child has to offer by focusing on similarities and strengths, rather than deficiencies and limitations, we all begin to recognize the value in all people.
Other strategies include making the facility physically accessible, recruiting and welcoming individuals into an agency's programs, preparing the participants for an inclusive program, emphasizing cooperative activities rather than competitive or individual ones, and implementing activities that are easily modifiable and allow for partial participation.
How can recreation program staff and families encourage friendships between children with disabilities and their typically developing peers?
Several strategies have been effective in encouraging friendships. First, families can take many positive steps to influence friendship building through recreation activities. Parents must make friendship development a family priority and become acquainted with other families in their neighborhood to identify peers who can potentially become friends. Parents must also actively arrange for frequent and ongoing opportunities for children to play together and interact.
Recreation program staff must develop agency mission statements that explicitly state an intention and ability to serve children of varying abilities. Program staff need to be prepared programmatically to meet individual needs, including expertise in providing one-to-one assistance, making needed program modifications, preparing typical peers for inclusive programs, and facilitating age-appropriate skills and positive peer interactions. It is time for all children with disabilities to share inclusive recreation and social experiences so that they will no longer be isolated from what is perhaps that most essential ingredient of what we elusively refer to as "quality of life."
Dr. Schleien is the author of "Community Recreation and People with Disabilities," a practical book filled with strategies and case studies on how inclusive recreation programs can be implemented and evaluated.
Copyright (c) 2002 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission.
