According to the Federal Government’s participation report, more than one in two people with disabilities never do sports. A lack of accessibility, inadequate infrastructure and a lack of inclusive offerings in clubs make access difficult.
Disabled sports in Germany are intended to do many things – bring people together, create success stories, and move people. But it often fails because of structures that slow people down before they even get started.
According to the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS), of the approximately 90,000 sports clubs across Germany, only around seven percent offer specific sports activities for people with disabilities.
Lacking Accessibility makes it difficult to get started
In everyday life, people with disabilities continue to encounter numerous obstacles that make access to sport more difficult. Sedat Özbicerler, managing director of the Cologne 99ers wheelchair basketball club, describes primarily infrastructural barriers: “We are here in city school sports halls, none of which are 100 percent barrier-free.”
There are also problems getting there. Local public transport is also only partially barrier-free in many places, and suitable sports facilities are often long distances away. There is often a lack of space in the halls themselves to store special sports equipment. All of this makes getting into sport complicated for many people with disabilities, says Özbicerler.
Political promises put to the test
Issues relating to sports for the disabled have long since arrived in politics. The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), for example, writes on its website: “The promotion of top-class sport for people with and without disabilities follows the same rules.” But equality often ends with such confessions.
Mareike Miller, player of the German national wheelchair basketball team and athlete spokesperson for the German Disabled Sports Association, knows the problems firsthand. With a view to the new sports funding law, she therefore calls for clear and binding regulations to be created: “It would be helpful to send a clear signal for inclusive sports groups, for the further development of parasports. If one were to also say very clearly that sports associations also have to work for this.”
Wheelchair basketball national player and athlete spokesperson Mareike Miller
Sedat Özbicerler would also like to see such an effort, especially on the big stage, for example when it comes to the desired application for the Olympic Games. Para sports always slip into a secondary role on the political stage and are rarely mentioned as synonymous. Özbicerler regrets that often “We only talk about the Olympic Games, even though we are also applying for the Paralympics.”
Financing: An Uneven Playing Field
Miller and Özbicerler continue to see significant deficits, especially when it comes to financing parasports. For example, obtaining the right tools. For those affected, says Miller, the question is often: “Do I have the right finances to be able to afford this or am I really supported in this area because the sports aids are also supported there?”
There is often a lack of financial support when it comes to concrete offers for para-athletes. In the case of the Cologne 99ers, says Özbicerler, the financing is supported by sponsorship money and donations as well as income from the competitive sports department. For beginners, a few sports wheelchairs could even be provided initially until they get their own. However, this is a special offer from the club and not a rule.
Sports wheelchairs cost several thousand euros and, according to Özbicerler, financing them is complicated and time-consuming. “In the youth and children’s sector, you can apply through the Participation Act for funding providers to partially cover this, but in most cases you have to go to court again to fight for this.”
Inclusion through school sports
According to Marieke Miller, there is great potential in school sports to strengthen inclusion. There, children and young people could overcome fears of contact and develop an early understanding of inclusion and sports for people with disabilities. “You just make sure that everyone has a completely different experience of movement and learns that such sports also exist.”says Miller.
But inclusive sports offerings are hardly anchored in curricula. This prevents both the normalization of sports for the disabled and the participation of children with disabilities in regular sports lessons. According to Miller “We are not creating enough offerings to ensure that sports for people with disabilities are accepted in our society”. Sedat Özbicerler emphasizes that the clubs themselves also need to become more active – for example by specifically advertising their sports offerings and increasing their visibility.
There are already individual initiatives such as the website parasport.de of the DBS, which makes it easier for people with disabilities to get started in sport by listing offers close to home and providing contacts to clubs. However, not all clubs are registered there. In addition, according to Miller, some sports clubs still have reservations about integrating people with disabilities into their regular offerings.
Athlete spokesperson wants specifications
Miller therefore calls for concrete measures instead of mere confessions – in school sports, in sports studies and in coach training. In addition, there is a need for binding guidelines for associations to systematically expand their para sports offerings. “I would simply like to see equality and the value of sports for disabled people not only being talked about all the time, but also being concretely expressed in measures.”she says.
There are many sports support programs, commitments and ideas to improve sports for the disabled in Germany. But the reality in halls and clubs often tells a different story.