On the International Day of People with Disabilities, we share some of the work we’ve been doing to improve accessibility information.
Research from Sport England has shown that almost one in five people in England have a long-standing limiting disability or illness, and that you’re twice as likely to be inactive if you have a disability. Alongside that, the Activity Alliance reports that four in five disabled people would like to be more active.
There are legal, moral and commercial reasons why activity providers shouldn’t exclude the needs of disabled people, as explained by ukactive’s Head of Inclusion, Tim Mathias, in our recent webinar on Improving Accessibility.
When we say accessibility, your first thought might be about how accessible your venue is. But in most cases, the customer journey starts before someone arrives at your door, and activity providers need to consider inclusivity both offline and online. We know there are many barriers to people getting active, and one is not being able to find the right information online.
The OpenActive data standards provide a standardised format for publishing data about sport and physical activities. We think they have a key role to play to improve accessibility across the sector, as they can guide activity providers about what information they need to share to make it easier for a disabled person to get active.
Over the past year and a half, we’ve been working to make sure the OpenActive standards include all the information people with accessibility requirements may need. We’ve consulted with organisations such as the Activity Alliance, Parasport, ukactive and Sport England to determine what information is most valued by disabled people, and how we can ensure that it’s collected and shared by activity providers. This might be detailed information about restrictions on equipment availability, or just making sure people have the contact information they need to pick up the phone and talk to someone about their requirements.
We want to help disabled people to make an informed decision about whether an activity is right for them. If you have a disability, or advocate for those who do, we’d love to hear your feedback on our proposal for addressing disability needs in OpenActive. There are a number of ways you can get involved.
