Disability In Birmingham

• In Birmingham, just under 200,000 of people have a long standing limiting disability or illness, yet only 13.5% of this population regularly accesses physical activity and sport
• That means that 76% of people with a disability in the City do not take part in any sport at all!
• This is despite the fact that 55.7% of adults who are inactive would like to take part in some form of sport or physical exercise
• Across all cultural facilities in Birmingham, lower proportions of Black, Minority Ethnic and Asian (BMEA); disabled and low income residents tend to participate in physical activity than do nationally
• Common reported barriers to participation include: inappropriate facilities, particularly for children and BMEA groups; lack of awareness; cost; and local accessibility

Disability Sports Forum

To address the above challenges, Sport Birmingham is working with a range of sporting and non-sporting partners through the Birmingham Disability Sports Forum to influence and advocate a more collaborative approach to increasing the number of disabled people participating in physical activity and sport.

The Birmingham Disability Sports Forum group consists of a range of strategic and operational partners, including National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs); disability user-led organisations, specialist charities, sports clubs and community organisations who share best practice in order to improve the opportunities for disabled people in physical activity and sport.

The overarching aims of the Birmingham Disability Sports Forum are to:

1. Advocate, promote and raise the profile of disability-friendly recreational activities across the city
2. Increase the number of needs-led activities so more people with a disability can take part in physical activity and sport
3. Develop existing provision and increase the quality of activity delivery by helping mainstream clubs and other organisations to become more inclusive
4. Consult with service users and the general public to better understand the current (and predominant) barriers to participation and find the best approach to address/overcome these

Want to help or be involved?

The Birmingham Disability Sports forum welcomes new members wishing to join and help further our cause, or to simply find out more about inclusive activities in the city.

We'd also love to hear from volunteers and organisations wishing to get involved in the Birmingham Inclusive Sports Fest by helping to organise and deliver activities or ensuring information about our work reaches as many new audiences as possible.

If interested in becoming a sponsor or supporting partner of the Disability Sports Forum or annual Sports Fest week, please contact Amy Bird.

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