• Fitness & Health
• Sport & Exercise Science
• Physical Education
• Strength & Conditioning
• Sports Medicine
• Sport Management
• Dance

Strategies of inclusion for winter sports

This is an excerpt from Adapted Physical Education and Sport 8th Edition by Joseph P. Winnick,David L. Porretta,Lauren J. Lieberman.

By Wesley J. Wilson

STRATEGIES FOR INCLUSION

Although competition is available for many winter sports, most students participate in them recreationally. As such, it is especially important for winter sports to be taught as inclusive activities, using a universal design for learning (UDL) approach to meet the instructional needs of all students. Although UDL is discussed in more detail in chapters 2 and 7, its primary feature is to “make it possible for everyone to participate in an inclusive setting without being singled out” (Burgstahler, 2015, p. 14). Inclusion—conceptualized by Haegele and Maher (2024) as eliciting feelings of value, belonging, and acceptance from the perspectives of the students with disabilities themselves—includes intentionally designing instruction that meets the needs of a diverse range of learners. This proactive, rather than reactive, approach involves providing tailored instruction that will empower students with disabilities, so even those with greater support needs can participate. For example, in winter activities such as skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, and ice skating, modifications to the equipment to increase stability and control and to the terrain to slow the activity down may be important for student success. Preventing excessive falling during this learning process—and framing falling that does occur as being expected for new learners, particularly those like Tamara from the opening scenario—is essential to creating an inclusive space where students feel safe to practice and master these winter sport skills.

Further, simple modifications can be broadly applied to make team events such as floor hockey, sled hockey, and curling more likely to elicit feelings of inclusion among participants. These typically involve modifying how the equipment is held to increase control, reducing the distances and boundaries to minimize the limitations imposed by reduced mobility, and defining safe areas if the students must be protected from physical contact or require a little more time to react during the game. As with any modification described in this chapter, the goal should be to build on all students’ strengths and maximize participation while promoting value, belonging, and acceptance. It should be noted that these modifications may not only be beneficial to students with disabilities, but also others who may be beginners or less skilled, thus promoting a more inclusive space for all without singling out any one student. Such an inclusive space makes it more likely that the physical fitness and social benefits associated with winter activities are obtainable for participants, because they may more readily develop functional competency in such a safe environment. This is key to their lifelong participation in these winter sports and activities.

COMMUNITY INTEGRATION

Physical educators are essential in the effort to guide students with disabilities to become integrated within the community. Importantly, these efforts should align with the student’s transition plan, a feature of their individualized education program (see chapter 5). Roth and colleagues (2007) provide important insight into the perspectives of K-12 graduates with intellectual disabilities and their parents regarding this transition, finding—perhaps unsurprisingly—that recent graduates reported a drop in physical activity behavior after their graduation as well as a heavy reliance on Special Olympics participation. The parents, for their part, identified the importance for students like theirs to be exposed to a “variety of activities in school and on school-directed community trips” (p. 98) to increase post-school physical activity.

Community-based instruction is designed to provide a more authentic learning environment so that skill generalization from the classroom to the community is more likely for students with disabilities (Project 10: Transition Education Network, 2025). Accordingly, to enhance this exposure, community-based instruction for winter sports should be applied across multiple physical activity opportunities rather than a single source. For winter sports, it is true that a transition plan may include a partnership with one of the organizations or programs described in this chapter (e.g., Special Olympics, U.S. Figure Skating). However, it may also feature frequent field trips to different parks and trails to practice cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, including how to get there, how to pay park fees, and how to navigate the park. Alternatively, a transition plan may include going to an indoor ice rink and learning how to pay fees, rent skates or other equipment, and advocate for oneself if extra accommodations are needed. The primary focus is that the students will develop as much independence as possible as they begin to transition into more community-based opportunities.

More Excerpts From Adapted Physical Education and Sport 8th Edition

---