MADRID, 23 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The National Commission for Inclusive Sports of the Spanish Sports Association (ADESP) has published a decalogue on how the integration processes of sports practiced by people with disabilities should be carried out in the respective Spanish federations.
The Commission, which includes the Spanish Federations of Cycling, Swimming, Winter Sports, Table Tennis, Badminton, Triathlon, Sports for the Blind, Sports for the Deaf, Sports for People with Physical Disabilities, Sports for People with Intellectual Disabilities and Sports of People with Cerebral Palsy and Acquired Brain Injury; the Autonomous Communities of Extremadura and the Region of Murcia; the Sanitas Foundation, the Spanish Paralympic Committee and ADESP, tries to establish the criteria that should be followed in this process marked out in the Sports Law and that is a reflection of the process that is being carried out at an international level and that is expected to culminate in 2026.
As indicated by the CPE and ADESP, this decalogue states that “every integration process must be agreed between the sports federation for people with disabilities that transfers the sport and the federation that receives it” and that “the integration process must be understood as a desired process and not imposed by regulations”.
In addition, this process “must be reflected in a transfer agreement detailing all aspects of the process”, and also “a mechanism must be established” to deal with its financing, and both the Higher Sports Council and the Directorates Departments of Sports of the Autonomous Communities “should allocate budgets for these federative integration processes in a stable manner over time.”
The decalogue reflects that “there must be a harmonization between the federative integration model at the state level with respect to that of the autonomous communities” and “the future role that the entity or entities inheriting the current Spanish Federations must have clearly determined of Sports for People with Disabilities when they have transferred their sports modalities”, since they have knowledge that “is an undeniable value that must necessarily be taken advantage of”.
The federations that integrate sports modalities for people with disabilities must “consider measures, budgetary or of any other type, aimed at eliminating barriers that in actual practice make integration and inclusion in sport impossible” such as “the high cost of material specific sport for people with disabilities” or “the lack of accessibility in facilities”.
In the same way, the federations that integrate sports modalities of people with disabilities will implement measures “to guarantee the representativeness of these people” in their governing bodies, and must “promote the continuous training” of the technicians and coaches of the respective modality so that can help in this incorporation of athletes with disabilities in their respective fields, “preferably with an inclusive approach”.
The federation that integrates a sports modality for people with disabilities “will use inclusive language in all its terminology”, with the suggestion of using “the recommendations” of the CPE and, finally, these federations “will undertake internal dissemination and communication actions and external, with which to value the objectives and results of the sports integration processes and the great contribution they make to the final goal of achieving the full inclusion of people with disabilities in society”.