From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Across the country, students with disabilities are pushing to be included on their school athletic teams. Their success varies by state, school district and sport.

Among the barriers are state policies prohibiting the use of track wheelchairs. Some states say they pose a potential danger to runners, while others say they may give wheelchair racers an unfair advantage over athletes who race on foot.

Washington, Louisiana, Oregon and New Jersey mandate the integration of disabled athletes in public school sports, and wheelchairs are permitted on the track. A bill moving through the Maryland legislature would require schools to provide a plan for athletic opportunities for disabled students, and districts could be punished for violations. The proposal was prompted by [Tatyana McFadden], a wheelchair track star who sued her school district and state to get on her high school team.

Advocates for the disabled say wheelchair racers stay in their own lanes, posing no greater safety risk than other runners; they compete against special national standards, not the able-bodied racers, so there’s no advantage. In some states, these athletes gain points for beating national benchmarks, rewarding the racer but not swamping the competition.

… Some advocates say disabled athletes need laws at the state and perhaps even national level guaranteeing their right to compete at school.

… Deborah McFadden, Tatyana’s mother, said she didn’t believe that athletic integration was too costly or difficult. Regardless, athletics should be open to everyone because it’s part of the tax-funded public school system, she said.

“It’s like saying, ‘We’ll pay for everyone else to be involved, but not this group of students,’” she said.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 7:08 am and is filed under accessibility, education, exercise/sports, inclusion, wheelchair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post