Love DISABILITY & PHYSICAL ACTIVITY - Essay Example

This report discusses the major barriers that restrict disabled people in accessing and progressing within the available sporting infrastructure in Darlington Borough, in United Kingdom. Bone and Meltzer (1999, p14) define disability as “any physical or mental state that limits movements, activities or senses of the affected person”. According to Arthur and Finch(1999, p41), persons with disabilities includes “people afflicted by long term mental, physical, intellectual, or sensory malfunctions, which limit their ability to participate fully and effectively in society like other able people”.

Disability could be temporary, permanent or it could recur periodically within the life span of the affected person. Darlington Borough has an estimated population of 99,475 (PMP, 2009). Elderly persons aged 65 years and above account to 17% of the total population in the region, compared to national average of 16%. The proportion of people aged below 40 years in the borough is less than the national average. About 31% of people in the area do not have private cars for transport (PMP 2009, p16).

This limits access to available sporting facilities, especially among the disabled persons. The region has unemployment rate of 4%, which is above the national level in the United Kingdom (PMP 2009, 37). According to PMP (2009) disabled persons account to 10.6 % of the entire population in the borough. Most of the disabled are elderly persons aged over 65 years. Darlington borough has an estimated 107.5 hectares of land for playing pitches, but only 39% of this area is available for public use (PMP, 2009, p65).

In spite of economic prosperity in various regions, people with disabilities encounter higher levels of social, economic and political isolation compared to those without the condition (Andreasen, 1995, p 17). These challenges permeate into sports across different regions and Darlington is not an exception. Although factors such as age, ethnicity, gender,