Reflection

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Looking back on the first day of class and receiving the instructions for our first blog, I was not as knowledgeable about disabled sports as I am now, after being almost done with this course. When I first started this class, if someone were to ask me, "what do you think of when you hear disabled sports?" and I would have to say that the first thing that came to my mind was individuals who were paralyzed and needed wheelchairs that played sports. I did know about several different disabilities, but people in wheelchairs was the first image that came to my mind. Now, flash forward to a few months later, and I now know the correct way to address these athletes as: "individuals with disabilities," and not as "disabled people." There is so much new information that I have learnt about the Paralympics that I never would have even thought of if I had not taken this class. For example, the different categories of disabilities that there are in order to be able to participate in the Paralympic Games, the fact that misrepresentation and cheating is a thing, and classification is a whole system in itself that I had no idea about. All of these things have come together in my head and have broadened my horizons on disabilities and sports.

This class has 100% changed my mindset towards the values of sports for individuals with disabilities by opening my mind to the different types of sports that there are that go together with the different types of disabilities. I have had a lot of experience with individuals with disabilities, such as volunteering at The Arc of Atlantic County and working with individuals with disabilities, along with volunteering at Field Of Dreams in Absecon where I assisted young adults with disabilities playing baseball. Both of these experiences have brought true joy to myself, especially now after taking this class, I can truly appreciate these times spent with the athletes.

Something really interesting that got brought to my attention was the scandal of misrepresentation with the basketball team. When I first learned about this scandal, my mind was shocked that this could happen in the Paralympics, since I had learned how accurate the classification system was. It is sad how people these days still try and cheat for their country when, in reality, they should be representing their country, proudly.

Learning from this class has given me the knowledge on my mindset about disability and its impact on society. Learning about "inspiration porn" taught me that these individuals don't want to be inspired by, but they want to be treated the same and acknowledged for their hard work, strength, and endurance that they have put in to the sports. In order to get involved in promoting disabled sports, I would love to get more experience with participating in sports and assisting individuals with disabilities in sports. I would love to volunteer more and spread the word to friends and family so that this topic can be more well known.

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