© Provided by The TelegraphCall for disabled sports programmes to be prioritised after large drop in activity
New research has revealed the stark and disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on the activity levels of disabled people, prompting urgent calls to prioritise inclusion when lockdown measures are eased.
More than twice as many disabled people reported that the coronavirus had "greatly reduced their ability to do sport and physical activity" compared with able-bodied people. The number of disabled people who felt they had the chance to be active had also halved since the Covid-19 pandemic to just 29 per cent.
Although disabled sport has theoretically been granted an exemption during this current national lockdown, the practical reality of closed facilities has also meant that organised opportunities are curtailed.
The research was carried out by the Activity Alliance and, according to its chief executive Barry Horne, there is now the risk of irreversible damage to the physical and mental health of disabled people if they are overlooked when recreational sport reopens.
"There has been a real drop off in disabled people's activity," said Horne. "We have two really big fears. One is progress being set back so far that disabled people's involvement in activity and sport could be reversed for the long term as well as the short term. The other is that providers won't necessarily do the things to really prioritise disabled people's inclusion.
"And, without proactive prioritisation, the people who need to get back being active most will be left behind and forgotten.
"We appreciate we have a national crisis. But we have not heard near enough about the impact on disabled people's lives during the pandemic. Every plan, every action and every penny spent must be tested against its impact on disabled people's activity. If we do not act now, we will witness inequalities widen even further, or unthinkably they may become irreversible."
The wider backdrop was actually an encouraging rise in the activity levels of disabled people in the 18 months before last March. Around two-thirds of the lives subsequently lost during the Covid-19 pandemic have been people who are disabled or have long-term health conditions and, according to the research, they are significantly more fearful of Covid and social mixing.
Almost a quarter of disabled people also stated they had not received enough information about how to be active during the pandemic
Shona Hudson, a keen cyclist and a leader of British Cycling's "Breeze" popular rides for women, said sport and activity had been utterly crucial during a year in which her husband died. A hearing impairment, however, had made it impossible to take part in her usual dance and pilates classes on Zoom.
"It has been quite isolating - but I have used my sports and activity as a social network," she said. "I would have been really cut off otherwise. Deaf people tend to withdraw from things so it has been crucial for me."
Respondents to the Activity Alliance research said the lack of activity made disabled people's physical and mental health harder to manage and expressed feelings of loneliness and social isolation.
Tim Hollingsworth, the chief executive at Sport England, stressed that tackling inequalities in physical activity would be central to his organisation's new 10-year plan. "Working to remove barriers and make activity more accessible for disabled people underpins our new strategy," he said.
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