Supporting me to be active (January 2016)
A report which looks at the views and perceptions of ‘supporters’ of disabled people- friends, family, and professional paid support. It seeks to understand how their attitudes toward sport and physical activity may influence disabled people to be active.
Since 2012, Activity Alliance (previously known as EFDS) has focused its research on gathering disabled peoples own views and opinions about what they want and expect from sport and physical activity. We have used this information to help providers improve their offers to make them more suitable and appealing.
Our research has shown that disabled people often have smaller social networks who they rely on to a greater extent for day to day support. We believe that the people in these social networks could play a significant role in encouraging and supporting disabled people to be active.
Based on this assumption we are now widening our research focus to speak with ‘supporters’ of disabled people - friends, family, and professional paid support - to understand how their views and opinions of sport and physical activity may influence disabled people to be active.
Please note that the views and opinions in this report are from the perspective of the supporter so may vary from some views and opinions in previous research gathered from disabled people.
For this research EFDS partnered with the English Learning Disability Sports Alliance (ELDSA), a unique partnership between Special Olympics Great Britain (SOGB) and Mencap to promote the inclusion of people with a learning disability in sport and physical activity.
