Brown, Dr Christopher

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University of Hertfordshire Research Archive

06/10/2021, 16:02 Tokyo 2020: does the Paralympics empower disabled people?https://theconversation.com/tokyo-2020-does-the-paralympics-empower-disabled-people-165936 1/4Academic rigour, journalistic flairAustralia’s Ahmed Kelly is participating in the Tokyo Games, his third Paralympics. PA Images / Alamy Stock PhotoAugust 25, 2021 11.57am BSTThe Tokyo 2020 Paralympics are being used as a catalyst for a new global campaign aimed atremoving discrimination faced by disabled people. Entitled We the 15, this new effort has beenlaunched by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the International Disability Alliancealong with a host of other sports, human rights and business organisations. The goal is to create moreopportunities – and greater accessibility – for people with impairments.You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, here.Disability sport scholars like myself, however, question the extent to which the Paralympics canempower disabled people and create meaningful social change. Paralympians themselves are morelikely to be empowered, in their view, than the wider public.Listen to this articleSpeed  +  |  -00:00  /  07:14Listen later, on the Noa app.AuthorChristopher BrownLecturer in Sports Development,University of HertfordshireTokyo 2020: does the Paralympics empowerdisabled people?06/10/2021, 16:02 Tokyo 2020: does the Paralympics empower disabled people?https://theconversation.com/tokyo-2020-does-the-paralympics-empower-disabled-people-165936 2/4The stated vision of the IPC is to create a more inclusive society through the Paralympic Games. Butcan an elite sporting event that lasts two weeks, every four years, really achieve meaningful socialchange?Representation mattersElite sport is by definition an exclusive domain, and the Paralympics are no exception. The classification system used to determine athletes’ eligibility to compete is based on their impairmentand how it influences their sporting performance. But only a narrow range of impairments areconsidered, and the wider process has been criticised by scholars as disempowering.Some athletes have been re-classified into different categories without the reasoning behind thedecision being made clear. Others have been deemed ineligible because their impairments are notlisted in the IPC’s eligbility criteria.British wheelchair basketballer Oscar Knight is a case in point. Though a wheelchair user, he has beentold, as he puts it, that he’s “not disabled enough”. The IPC rules do not list some chronic-painconditions, including the one he experiences, as eligible. Like others, he has actually considered amputation of a limb in order to comply with the classification system.Beyond the athletes themselves, the vast majority of disabled people will not see their impairmentrepresented at the Paralympics. Paralympians are not representative of the everyday disabled person.Viewing disability through the lens of the Paralympics can therefore lead to a warped understandingof most disabled people’s lived experience.It is also possible the Paralympics may end up including disabled people who do not conform to theimage of Paralympians. While some athletes, like Knight, are excluded for not being disabled enough,others, research has argued, are being favoured for having impairments that are less severe, or thatallow for technological enhancements.Some see this as an attempt to make the sporting ability of Paralympians more accessible to a non-disabled audience. Indeed, research suggests the UK audience is now more likely to associatedisability with technologically enhanced individuals.For many disabled people, this diminishes even further the representative potential of theParalympics, as the high cost and limited access to cutting-edge equipment puts it out of reach. Andfor athletes with more complex impairments, for which there are not the same technologicalenhancements available, this is also disempowering. They don’t see role models to whom they canrelate among the Paralympian ranks.Japanese long jumper Saki Takakuwa in action. Aflo Co. Ltd. / Alamy Stock PhotoParalympian Ellie Simmonds stands with a group of children in swimsuits by a pool06/10/2021, 16:02 Tokyo 2020: does the Paralympics empower disabled people?https://theconversation.com/tokyo-2020-does-the-paralympics-empower-disabled-people-165936 3/4The superhuman labelMedia coverage often portrays Paralympians as supercrips, achieving success in spite of theirimpairment. Scholars argue this can have a negative impact on disabled people, because it reinforces society’s low expectations of what they can do. It also reinforces the idea that a hierarchy of impairments exists, with the supercrip image valued over complex and less understood impairments.Equally, the supercrip idea can be a source of inspiration. Children and aspiring athletes can both findthe exploits of Paralympians to be aspirational. The Rio 2016 gold medallist Ellie Robinson wasinspired to take up swimming after watching Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds compete atLondon 2012.Channel 4 has received mixed responses to its Paralympic marketing. The Meet the Superhumans ads,which ran ahead of the London 2012 Games, was named advertising campaign of the year forsuccessfully shifting public attitudes to disability and disabled sports.Research backs that up, showing that the broadcaster’s coverage of the Paralympics since the LondonGames has helped change attitudes towards disability. And yet, as Canadian coach and formerParalympian Danielle Peers noted in 2012, that same marketing strategy was also seen to perpetuate disability stereotypes.Similarly, in the run-up to the Rio 2016 Paralympics, Channel 4’s marketing campaign was praised forfocusing on a broader range of impairments and activities. But the #yesican narrative of thepromotion was criticised by some disabled people for ignoring the social and systemic barriers thatoften prevent disabled people from being active. As the journalist Lucy Catchpole wrote in theGuardian:Paralympian Ellie Simmonds has proven inspirational for aspiring athletes and children alike. PA Images / Alamy Stock PhotoPolish Paralympian table tennis player Natalia Partyka competes in Tokyo for a chance to win her fifth consecutive singlesgold. Newscom/Alamy Live NewsPolish Paralympian Natalia Partyka in a red shirt bats back a table tennis ball during a match06/10/2021, 16:02 Tokyo 2020: does the Paralympics empower disabled people?https://theconversation.com/tokyo-2020-does-the-paralympics-empower-disabled-people-165936 4/4Creating a view of disabled people as magical creatures who might look impaired butactually – ta dah! – are as capable as anyone else, if not more so (#superhumans), meansthat the general public will find the vast majority of disabled people, with our pain,weakness and fatigue, even more frustrating and confounding than they already do.Ultimately the Paralympic Games is an elite – and fleeting – sporting mega-event. The day-to-dayexperience of many disabled people, however, is continued discrimination. Whatever role theParalympics might have to play in achieving a fairer and more inclusive society should not detractfrom the wide-ranging social and systemic changes needed to ensure equal opportunities for disabledpeople.Disability Paralympics inclusivity Impairment Tokyo Paralympics Audio narratedTokyo 2021

Tokyo 2020: does the Paralympics empower disabled people?

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Tokyo 2020: does the Paralympics empower disabled people?

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