#It isn’t fair

The Need for Guidelines for the Inclusion of Children with Disability in Sport

Abstract

Sport for people with disability is frequently referred to as ‘Inclusion’. However, the anomaly around ‘inclusion’ for people with disability is that sport is not always genuinely, or truly, inclusive. Sporting opportunities for children with disability are not provided in the same way as mainstream opportunities for children, and are rarely provided to be with, and against, children without a disability in a way that is fair and meaningful. Sporting opportunities for children with disability are often provided in a way that is separate and segregated. They are often non-competitive. Many of these approaches are likely to be discriminatory, either unlawfully or wrongfully.

Human rights and domestic law provide the tools to prevent the discrimination of children with disability in sport. However, the law is not currently applied to influence the structure of sport and the resulting treatment of children with disability in a way that limits or prevents discrimination. This article argues that the current situation is not working, and that the law could be more effective through the use of Guidelines published by the Australian Human Rights Commission ‘for the avoidance of discrimination’, as provided for in the Disability and Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth).