Move United, a community-based adapted sports and recreation organization, has created sport-specific guides to help coaches integrate athletes with disabilities into high school athletic programs.
Each guide, which is available for free, focuses on an individual sport: track and field, swimming, wheelchair tennis, and boccia, with more sports to follow. The resources were created in partnership with the governing bodies of the respective sport.
The guides are intended to help break down barriers to inclusion for athletes with disabilities without altering rules for athletes without disabilities or imposing significant administrative challenges on state high school associations.
“Having all of the rules, regulations, classification standards, educational resources, and overall breakdown on the introduction to wheelchair tennis, will benefit any administrators, coaches, and athletes looking to get their very own program started,” said Jason Harnett, director of wheelchair tennis for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and head coach for Team USA Wheelchair Tennis. “We here at the USTA are proud to partner with Move United in pushing this sport forward.”
To download the Adapted Sports Guides, visit Move United’s website.