History of Adaptive and Disabled Rights Within Society, Thus Creating the Fertile Soil to Grow Adaptive Sports

Abstract

The history of sports for individuals with disabilities cannot be fully understood without discussing the adaptive and disabled rights movement history. The disabled rights movement in many ways parallels various civil rights movements during the last 200 years. A series of historic changes took place starting in the late eighteenth century and led to significant advancement in the recognition, acceptance, and civil rights of people with disabilities. In addition, there were several events, organizations, and movements progressing in separate, but parallel lanes. The cohesive and mostly seamless pathway enjoyed by individuals with disabilities today in adaptive sports, from childhood recreation and competition to team play and elite-level completion—to include the Special Olympics, the Paralympics, and athletes with bilateral lower extremity limb deficiency competing against able-bodied athletes in the London Olympics in 2014, were the result of convergence of these movements. Now we look toward what has changed Ten years beyond that.