Well it’s 2345pm and I am returning on a train journey from Oxford as I have been at Oxford Brookes’ AGM until about 930pm before actually grabbing some food and heading back home (think I’ll get into my bed about 1am- yay yay yay- whoever thinks this is a 9am-5pm job is so mistaken.) So here I am sat on a train for an hour bored so I thought I know what I’ll do is blog- well you know it has been sooooooooooo long since I last blogged (ok I admit am taking the piss out of myself). But hey at least you can’t say you don’t ever know what I am up to.

But anyhow this wasn’t the purpose of this blog- the reason for this blog was to get you all to think about disability and sport. You see disability sport has never had such a higher profile in this country. The last year has seen disabled sportswomen and sportsmen from a range of disciplines, and from further & higher institutions throughout the country, competing in a host of major competitions; the World Partially Sighted Football Championships, the Deaflympics and the Paralympics (where Team GB won 94 medals and came 2nd place.) In May 2006 Manchester plays host to the inaugural Paralympics world cup and, of course in 2012, London will host the Paralympics. Yet look in your students’ union publications, your magazines and sport pages- where are the disabled sports players? Look at your SU web site and the students whose achievements are celebrated- are any of these disabled sport players? At your AU colours dinner or sport awards will you even consider giving the sports player of the year to be one of your disability sport players- and if not why not? Could it be that disabled sport, well just isn’t considered as sport? If a students with disabilities came into your Union asking to play sport or join a sport club or one of your Union societies what would you do? Can you really believe that there are more parlympians than Olympians on our campuses yet if you look at our web sites, magazines etc. you would not even know that. This has to change!

You see NUS believes that all students should have the opportunity to participate in sport and activities. We believe it is students with disabilities right to have the same sporting opportunities as students without disabilities. As student officers and activists we can play a crucial role in removing barriers, widening opportunities and increasing choice and ensuring that students with disabilities enjoy the same sporting opportunities and choices as their non-disabled peers.

As part of the NUS SWD Campaign- Activate and the NUS Priority Campaign Participate: Actions speak louder than words there will be a disability sports day on Monday November 7th being held at Keel University. This event is open to all officers in both Further and Higher Education but we would particularly encourage Activities, Equal Opps, Sport and SWD Officers to attend the event. The event will have a number of workshops, key speakers and organisations including English Federation of Disability Sport and British Blind Sport as well as give it go sessions. We will also have a number of disability sport players there talking about their experiences of sport in their college or university. Also there will be officers there from universities such as Bath Spa, Coventry and Teeside talking about their disability and disability sport campaigns and how they have got them to work on their campuses.

There are only a limited number places for the day because of the give it a go sessions so it is advised to book early. To book go to www.officeronline.co.uk or email events@nus.org.uk or just get in touch with me. The cost of the day is £20 for HE and £10 for FE and lunch is included as well as the chance to participate in give it a go sport sessions.

I really do hope to see sports officers, AU presidents, activities officers, swd officers and equal Opps peeps at this event and anyone else who has a real interest in disability sport. If you would like to know more or to get involved in the NUS SWD Activate campaign then please do get in touch. Remember we can make sport inclusive- but it starts on our campuses- lets start giving disability sport the recognition it deserves.

Cheers
Sian Xx

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