The FINANCIAL — An accident can change your life forever. According to the World Health Organization, some twenty to fifty million people per year sustain non-fatal injuries just from car accidents.
The FINANCIAL — An accident can change your life forever. According to the World Health Organization, some twenty to fifty million people per year sustain non-fatal injuries just from car accidents.
While some limitations remain permanent, others can be reduced with regular exercise. Together with TNS Infratest, Allianz carried out a survey in winter 2011/12 in Germany on the topic of sport and its role in the life of people with physical disabilities. Twenty five people with a disability were interviewed in-depth.
According to the study, sport helps people to get back to normality and improve their quality of life. The motivation to do sporting activities goes beyond the physical level, because preserving and increasing physical abilities leads to more autonomy and less constraints in daily life.
"After an accident, sport is usually an important part of rehabilitation, which helps people to regain their physical fitness," says Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). "But sport can play an important role in the lives of people with an impairment, which goes beyond rehabilitation. Through sport people both with and without a disability can be part of society and improve their self-confidence."
Therapeutic rehabilitation often becomes the first contact with sport for people with a disability. But in order to be able to do sport regularly afterwards, local conditions must meet therequirements of people with an impairment. Many cities offer sport opportunities for people with a disability, but these are not necessarily accessible. Sometimes, it is simply a lack of information about sport opportunities, which makes it difficult to sign up.
People with a disability run into obstacles in daily life nearly everywhere, whether it is taking public transport, doing grocery shopping or using leisure facilities. Endeavours of any kind take a high level of planning. Being spontaneous and consuming freely – these dimensions of a normal life often are far from reach.
The Internet plays a particular role in access to sport for people with a disability, the study found. In compensation for physical mobility it also serves as a research medium. Opportunities to do sport posted on the Internet increase the flow of information and the prospect of successfully participating in sport. Places such as sport facilities can be located online and training opportunities can be discussed directly over the Internet. This can greatly simplify or even enable communication and exchange of information between sport centers and other sports enthusiasts.
"Competitive sport for people with a disability is far better known now than it was 12 years ago. But there is still room for improvement. We still don't have the same standing as able-bodied athletes," says a participant in the study on the topic of perception.
Able-bodied people still find it extremely difficult to know how to deal with people with an impairment both in their everyday lives and within sport. Sport for people with a disability, in particular sports for the public, still leads a shadowy existence in the public domain. We hear about the sporting challenges, achievements and victories all too rarely.
Public interest in Paralympic Sport has been steadily increasing for some years. According to IPC statistics, two million tickets for the Paralympic Games in London will be sold, whereas just over a million were sold in Sydney in 2000. 6,000 accredited journalists are also expected to come to London, whereas only 2,500 were present in Sydney. The duration of television coverage has also increased: whereas only around 50 hours of the Paralympic Games in Sydney were broadcast, more than 1,500 hours were broadcast in Vancouver in 2010.
