Episode 27: Inclusive Sport: listening is key

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 https://carersqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Choice-and-Control-4-5-Inclusive-Sporting-Framework.docx

0:00 Carers Queensland Announcement: You’ve head of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but how much do you know about it?  Find out what it means, how it works and how to apply for access at Carers Queensland’s free workshop, Understanding the NDIS.  Find out more, check for events coming up near you, and book your spot online at carersqld.com.au.  You can also call us on 1300 999 636. 

0:31 Jodie van de Wetering: Choice and Control, a podcast celebrating people with disability, brought to you by Carers Queensland NDIS Local Area Coordination Partner in the Community. 

The key to being more inclusive is to listen.  If you’re not sure whether your sport, your event, your facilities, are accessible to people with disability – ask, and be prepared to act on what they tell you.   It’s tempting to think of accessibility in terms of the big-ticket items like getting a grant to build a ramp to the clubhouse, but it could be as simple as an attitude change and a welcoming smile.  Later this episode we’ll meet Paralympian Ella Sabljak.  She’s part of Paralympic Australia’s Athlete Commission, making sure the voices of athletes with disability are heard at every level.   

But if you’re part of a sports group or club and wondering whether you could be more inclusive, there are tools available to help.  Sport Australia has an inclusive sport framework to help you assess where you are right now and figure out your next steps.  I caught up with Sport Australia’s Nick Abroms to find out how it works. 

0:41 Nick Abroms: Well, the inclusive sport framework is a five-step process that was created by Sport Australia to help support clubs to become more inclusive.  We’ve got five different steps, so I might just break them down.  We’ve got step one which is analysing, step two which is committing, step three which is updating and expanding, step four which is communicating and step five which is reporting and reviewing.  So I might just go through each of those briefly one by one.   

So step one, analysing, that’s about identifying the organisation’s strengths, gaps and opportunities.  So looking at your strengths would include having a look at what you currently have in place to help promote diversity and inclusion.  Looking for the gaps is more about looking at what you can still do or what you still need to do to prevent things like discrimination or exclusion.  And then once those gaps are identified you flip them around and you turn them into opportunities, so by filling those gaps organisations can become more inclusive.   

Step two is about making a commitment, so that’s about really committing your club or your sport to inclusion.  That could involve developing an inclusion statement or something similar to help demonstrate that you are in fact an inclusive organisation and that you know you’re making a commitment to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all of your participants.   

Step three is about updating and expanding, so at that stage you’ve got your inclusion statement but it’s about updating your policies, your codes, your procedures and your templates and linking them to inclusion.  It’s about reviewing you know what else your organisation does and linking those things to inclusion as well.  That might include things such as you know looking at other strategies, other programs or initiatives and linking them to your inclusion statement.   

Step four that’s about communication, and I think clubs and sports do this quite well.  It’s about communicating your new inclusion framework to your members, to your volunteers, to the community.  You can do a lot of things to do this, you can hold community information sessions, you could create an inclusion section on your website and within that section you can outline your inclusive policies, your codes, your strategies, your programs anything that links back to inclusion.  If you have a club that has a newsletter you could talk about inclusion in your newsletter and again it’s all about letting the community within the club, and the wider community, know that you know you are creating a welcoming and safe environment for people to come down and to compete and to enjoy your club and enjoy your sport.   

Step five that’s about reporting and reviewing, so that’s about continually reviewing and updating your inclusive practice.  You might do that quarterly, you might do that annually, you know whatever works best for your club or your sport.  It might be linked to your annual report or your AGM. I know that here at Sport Australia we’re constantly continually reviewing and updating everything that we’ve got up on our website when it comes to inclusion and every now and then we do a bit of a refresh and make sure that we’ve got all the latest information on there for people to access. 

4:47 Jodie:  Inclusion has so many different branches, but if we look specifically at disability inclusion, what sort of things might clubs be considering? 

4:58 Nick: I think in the first instance, my advice would be to have a look at your club, have a look at your club’s facilities, see if you pick up on anything, any type of barriers when it comes to physical access issues.  I think also having a look at how people get in touch with your club, from the communication point of view.  So right now I’m thinking of maybe people with a visual impairment or a hearing impairment, and making sure that your club is accessible when it comes to communication so people with any type of visual or hearing impairment can get in touch.   

I think talking to people that have a disability, whether it’s within your club or outside of your club, that can be really, really helpful getting that expert advice.  I’d say don’t be afraid to do that. I think that somebody who might have a disability or a different need, they will be best placed to tell you what you can do to make your club more accessible and more welcoming. 

5:54 Jodie: When you talk about disability access, a lot of people’s minds go straight to the expensive infrastructure stuff like having to install ramps or new toilet facilities.  Do clubs worry that improving access is going to be expensive? 

6:08 Nick: Look I think that’s a really good question. That's a big one, and I think it’s definitely a barrier for clubs and maybe even a perceived barrier.  I think that things like ramps and lifts are fantastic, but they’re really expensive.  Those big-ticket infrastructure items can cost a lot and clubs don’t always have the budget for those types of things.  But sometimes it’s just about being welcoming to people with different abilities, and talking to them, and finding out what else you can do in the first instance without spending a lot of money.   

I think that when it comes to some of those more expensive infrastructure-related items there are people that can help.  You know having a look at what’s available through your local government, through your state government, through the federal government, always keeping a lookout for grants and I think clubs are really good at doing that.  Fundraising as well is a fantastic way.  But there is a lot that you can do you know in the meantime just by having a chat to people that might have different abilities and finding out what you can do in the first instance to help them access your club a bit better. 

7:09 Jodie: That’s so true there’s one example from Central Queensland where there’s a soccer club that was able to be more accessible for a player with low vision just by using a different coloured ball. 

7:18 Nick: Yes and I’ve heard a lot of stories like that.  That’s the thing, you don’t know what you don’t know, and sometimes that’s why it is great to just get out there and to talk to people and find out you know what are the little things that you can do. 

7:29 Jodie: What is the value of Australian sport being more inclusive? 

7:33 Nick: There are so many benefits I think we’d be here all day if I listed them all, but just to name a few: being more inclusive can help increase a club’s membership, volunteer and participant base, it can help expand sponsorship opportunities, it will help a club to develop a stronger and better-connected community, it will help contribute to the positive physical and mental health within the club’s community and within the wider community as well.  It can help strengthen the sustainability of a club, and it can also increase the community support for a club.  So it’s definitely a win/win 

8:10 Jodie: Nick if people would like to find out more, maybe they’re involved with a local sports club and thinking well maybe this inclusive sports framework is something I need to be looking into where’s the best place to go to get some more information  

8:23 Nick: Yeah well look if you go to our website which is sportaus.gov.au you’ll be able to find all of that information. 

8:36 Carers Queensland announcement: If you’re looking for maximum flexibility and choice, self-managing your NDIS plan might be the right option for you.  Carers Queensland’s free Introduction to Self-Management workshop covers the benefits of self-managing your plan, how it works, and the practical side of arranging support and managing payments.  This workshop is offered in person and online.  Find out more, check for events coming up near you, and book your spot online at carersqld.com.au. 

9:07 Jodie: We’ve heard from Sports Australia’s Nick Abroms about their inclusive sport toolkit, and a part of that is how important it is to be open to communication: to talk with people about what they want and what they need to be fully included.   

That’s also a focus for one of the newest members of the Paralympic Australia Athlete Commission.  The Commission exists to help Paralympic Australia to stay engaged and connected with the Paralympian community.  Gold Coast wheelchair basketball player Ella Sabljak was recently selected for the group, and she found out while she was in quarantine on her way home from Tokyo for her first Paralympic Games.  It’s another advocacy role for Ella as well as being on the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s Athlete Steering Committee.  They’re roles Ella has taken because she wants to make sure the voices of people with disability are always part of the conversation.   

9:58 Ella Sabljak: I think growing up having a disability and having people speak for me when I was younger, I think that was where it started.  I could see what was happening, and there were people on the table making these decisions for me that weren’t the right decisions.  I guess I could see it from an early age that that wasn’t fair, and I had random medical doctors or whoever it may be saying that I needed this or that and I’m like ‘well, I don’t need that’.   

And so having that background and then coming into sport, I can see people getting forgotten almost because their voices aren’t heard and I don’t think that’s very fair.  I’ll always stand up for what I believe in and I’ll always you know back my teammates and everyone behind me, so yeah.  It’s just something that I am really passionate in because nobody gets left behind, and we want to bring everybody up so that we can all be our best and do our best, and that means everybody’s voice has to be heard. 

11:08 Jodie Ella’s also a primary school teacher where she’s passionate about positive mental health and wellbeing, and that’s something she’s bringing to her new role on the Athlete Commission. 

11:18 Ella: From an athletes point of view, I guess we know what all athletes go through and  the hardships and the triumphs and celebrations that we all go through.  I think for me and for our team, which is Paralympic team, I guess I want everybody to have the tools in their toolkit to be able to succeed on the field or swimming or wherever it is and also off the court as well.  So being able to provide these tools and opportunities for everyone to live a successful life in and around sport, and also away from sport. 

11:55 Fiona Stutz: To you, how important is the mental health of athletes?  

11:58 Ella: It’s everything.  Like, you can be physically strong and prepared, but unless our mental game and our preparation… if we haven’t worked on that or if we have lacked in some places, we won’t be able to perform.  So being able to think of an athlete as not just physical but also mental as well, so we have to be able to practice and do all of the things that we’ve learnt to our brain so that we can perform. 

I think especially in my sport, basketball, it’s a team sport so we have to be able to play together and if I’m having an off game that doesn’t just impact me it impacts a lot of people around me.  So to be able to use everything that I know and have learnt so that I can be my best so that my team can be the best, I think it is so crucial. 

12:53 Jodie: You can find out more about Paralympic Australia on their website at paralympic.org.au and for more on Sport Australia’s inclusive sport framework head to sportaus.gov.au and look for ‘safe and inclusive sport’.   

For more sporting goodness scroll back through the Choice and Control archives.  We’ve met the GingerCloud Modified Rugby Program, Para Ice Hockey Queensland, and the Accessible Water Sports Club to name just a few.  Have a look and see what else you can find. 

Thanks for joining us at Choice and Control, a Carers Queensland podcast.  For more information about the National Disability Insurance Scheme or Carers Queensland contact us online at carersqld.com.au.  You can call us on 1300 999 636 or head to Facebook and look for Carers Queensland NDIS. 

 Mentioned in this episode 

• Sport Australia’s Inclusive Sport Framework 
• Carers Queensland website 
• Carers Queensland upcoming events and workshops 
• Carers Queensland NDIS on Facebook 

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