Supporting me to be active

Over the past four years EFDS has focused its research on gathering disabled peoples own views and opinions about what they want and expect from sport and physical activity. The researchers have used this information to help providers improve their offers to make them more suitable and appealing. Their research has shown that disabled people often have smaller social networks who they rely on to a greater extent for day to day support. They believe that the people in these social networks could play a significant role in encouraging and supporting disabled people to be active. Based on this assumption the researchers are now widening their research focus to speak with ‘supporters’ of disabled people – friends, family, and professional paid support – to understand how their views and opinions of sport and physical activity may influence disabled people to be active. Please note that the views and opinions in this report are from the perspective of the supporter so may vary from some views and opinions in previous research gathered from disabled people. For this research EFDS partnered with the English Learning Disability Sports Alliance (ELDSA), a unique partnership between Special Olympics Great Britain (SOGB) and Mencap to promote the inclusion of people with a learning disability in sport and physical activity.