Articulations of ableism in sport and physical activity

Abstract

Disabled people continue to experience ableism in sport and physical activity in many forms. Operating as a form of privilege, ableism encompasses a complex and enduring network of beliefs, processes, and practices that place value on nondisabled embodiment and shape our collective understandings of the self, our bodies, and our relationships, and how we perceive, and are perceived by, others. However, the breadth of ableist tendencies, attitudes, and practices prevalent within sport and physical activity are not clearly articulated. This study draws on data generated from eight focus group interviews with 50 participants from across the sport and active recreation sector in Aotearoa New Zealand to paint a fuller picture of how able-bodied privilege operates. Working back-and-forth between theory and data, we expand empirically on the concept of ableism in sport and physical activity, exploring covert and overt articulations of ableism expressed by sports practitioners, while locating them within a broader framework of able-bodied privilege and power. In so doing, we provide a sensitizing framework to identify different forms of ableism present in sport: from neoliberal, institutional, and enlightened attitudes through to benevolent, apologetic, aversive, and abject responses to disability. In illustrating these contemporary manifestations of ableism, we hope to develop a shared language for both understanding and challenging ableism in sport.