Children with disabilities often face more barriers to access sports. These challenges exist due to lack of awareness from those without disabilities to include them, lack of opportunities for training and competition, lack of accessible facilities, limited resources and perceptions about the interests and abilities of youth with disabilities to play sports.  Greater promotion in schools of integrated sports — meaning pairing children with and without physical or intellectual disabilities on the same team — can help increase access to sports for children with disabilities.

A child’s experience in sports is often only as good as the coach. And too few coaches are trained in key areas. For instance, less than 60% of surveyed coaches have ever taken trainings in trauma-informed practices, performance anxiety, emotional regulation and how to work with parents, according to the National Coach Survey as administered by the Aspen Institute, Ohio State, Nike and partners in 2022.

We heard that learning about diverse sports opportunities is a problem for all youth. This gap gets magnified for children with disabilities.

To assess what factors prevent Kansas City-area children from accessing sports and physical activity, the Aspen Institute spoke with many stakeholders — including focus groups with young people — and reviewed existing research within the region. Four key themes emerged.

Every child has the right to play sports and, when in the care of adults, the human rights they are born with need to be respected. This simple idea informs the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports, a resource designed to create a shared cultural understanding that all youth should have the opportunity to develop as people through sports.