When people think of disability sports, most of them immediately think of the Paralympic Games. However, disability sport happens throughout the year, every year. But it isn’t noticed as much because it’s not widely broadcast. This has sparked the question – are sports broadcasters ableist? Our writer Emma Purcell analyses the current level of disability sports coverage and shares her thoughts on it.
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed more and more disability sports happening around the world but I’m only aware of them either through my contacts as a disabled journalist or stumble across them via social media posts in the disability community.
However, for the general public, there is hardly any publicity and coverage of these sporting events in the mainstream media. A majority of them are either streamed on Facebook, YouTube or some other foreign third-party platform that you have to pay to access. So unless you are already involved in these disability sports or follow them online, you’re very unlikely to know it’s happening.
Also, I find in sports news bulletins on TV and radio, that disability sports are very rarely mentioned unless it’s the Paralympic Games. This could be a quick and easy way to tell people disability sports are happening all year round. Watching or listening to the sports headlines could lead people to search for more in-depth coverage of disability sports or even help disabled people find ways to participate in a sport.
The lack of publicity and coverage of disability sports frustrates me for two reasons. Firstly, if these disability sports events aren’t visible on mainstream platforms, many disabled people and their families may not be aware these sports are available and it could inspire other disabled individuals to take up a sport. Secondly, we want the whole of society to watch, follow and support disability sports in the same way they would with non-disabled sports.
Sport should just be sport, not labelled men’s sport, women’s sport and disability sport.
7 disability sports in 2023
Below is a list of seven disability sports that have taken place throughout 2023 with details on how publicised the events were.
1. Disability football
For the third time, I’ve been fortunate enough to watch the Disability FA Cup finals on BT Sports (now TNT Sports). Over one weekend in June, six matches took place for different abilities – blind, visual impairment, deaf, powerchair, cerebral palsy and amputees – all taking place at St George’s Park, the training grounds for the senior England teams.
Although it was great coverage, with superb matches, disabled presenters and pundits and accessible commentary including audio description, subtitles and British Sign Language, I still feel disappointed this is the only time we can watch disability football.
The fact it is on BT Sport can be a disadvantage for people who don’t have access to that paid subscription service. Channel 4 does show an hour-long highlights programme the following week but it isn’t the same as watching the full live games.
Also, usually, the FA Cup has up to 12 rounds with teams from multiple divisions playing. In disability football, we never get to see the earlier rounds, the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, meaning we don’t get to see other teams compete or watch the finalist progress in the tournament.
What is also disappointing is that we have very little to no coverage of league games and international tournaments. During the post-match coverage of the Disability FA Cup finals, many of the players and pundits mention upcoming events such as the domestic leagues or the European Championships but there is no information on how people can watch and follow their journeys.
In August, we spoke to Chelsea and England amputee footballer Shelbée Clarke about the lack of disability football being broadcast.
She said: “We’ve only had the FA Cup finals two or three times, so once a year it’s on TV, which just blows your mind because there is so much disability football out there and young children with disabilities aren’t seeing enough disabled people around. They’re not seeing more people like themselves on TV being broadcast as professional athletes other than the Paralympics.
We don’t ever see anything and I think that is definitely something that does need to change because kids need to see that. If they work hard enough, disabled or not, they can become a professional. If that’s something that you love doing, and it’s something we can work towards, that in the future is a thing, then I’ll be absolutely over the moon.”
It’s great that BT Sport and Channel 4 are giving some publicity to disability football but I think we need a free platform for disability football to be broadcast all year round and not just one weekend a year.
2. Wheelchair tennis
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Wheelchair tennis is usually played alongside the men’s and women’s tournaments. Despite the success of British players Gordan Reid, Alfie Hewett, Lucy Shuker, Jordanne Whiley and many others, coverage of their matches still appears limited.
I particularly noticed this over the summer during Wimbledon and more recently the US Open. I admit I don’t really follow any kind of tennis myself, but when it came to the sports bulletins on the news, I never heard any of the wheelchair tennis results.
Another occasion I was aware of was when Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett were competing in their Wimbledon doubles final and it was shown on BBC TV but partway through the match, the channel switched to an able-bodied mixed final where no Brits were competing and told people to continue watching the wheelchair final on iPlayer.
Yes, great it was still available on iPlayer but the fact they switched it made it seem like wheelchair tennis is less important than standard tennis. Plus, there are still many elderly and disabled people who have difficulty accessing BBC iPlayer, so they are likely to miss out more on disability sports coverage.
The same can be said for the US Open. It was broadcast on Sky Sports where you needed a paid contract or subscription to access the coverage. As for wheelchair tennis, I heard no results or highlights in any sports news bulletins and the only mention of it I saw was a post from a friend on Facebook who is a big fan of tennis saying that she was watching Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid’s final, which on this occasion was actually broadcast on Sky Sports Main Event.
Furthermore, I think the skill and talent wheelchair tennis players bring are more exceptional than standard tennis. I find it incredible that they can manoeuvre a wheelchair and hit the tennis ball with such speed and accuracy.
I feel if wheelchair tennis was broadcast more, people, disabled or not, would be more fascinated in watching it.
3. Para Athletics World Championships
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The Paris 2023 Para Athletics World Championships took place in July. I was only aware of this event after seeing a Facebook post. Fortunately, BBC News did include some news, highlights and results in its sports bulletins, mentioning athletes like Jonnie Peacock, Hammah Cockroft, Hollie Arnold and Aled Davies.
However, to watch live coverage of the Championships, I initially thought you could only access it on the World Para Athletics Facebook page, but as I write this, I’ve just discovered it was also live-streamed on Channel 4’s streaming service. This is great news but I feel I saw no publicity of this, meaning I was unaware.
Also, I think it would’ve been better if Channel 4 broadcasted it on terrestrial TV and online because many people, like myself, have difficulty accessing the Channel 4 streaming service, particularly on Smart TV.
4. Special Olympics
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The Special Olympics is a sporting event that involves athletes with intellectual disabilities. This year’s event took place in Berlin, Germany in June. I saw a few news stories leading up to the games, talking to athletes who had qualified for the Olympics but I was unable to watch any live coverage.
Again, when I initially searched for coverage, I was sure we needed to pay access to ESPN, but when I checked again this month, it turned out we could’ve accessed ESPN free of charge. I think there needs to be clearer information ahead of sporting events as to how and when people can watch these events.
But also, even if these services are free of charge, there is no guarantee the service will be accessible to all disabled and elderly people who may struggle to navigate apps and websites with the coverage on. This is why having more disability sports broadcast on terrestrial TV would be a lot better for many people to access.
Also, it will be an easier way for other people to discover disability sports who may not be aware of them.
5. IBSA World Games
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The International Blind Sports Federation hosted the IBSA World Games in August 2023. This disability sporting event was actually suggested to us by one of our readers.
The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) has been representing and developing athletes and sports for people with visual impairments for 40 years.
As a founding member of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), IBSA plays a crucial role in growing both Paralympic sports and Para sports more widely. It has become the world’s leading organisation for the development of sport for people with visual impairments.
Sports available at the games included powerlifting, judo, goalball, football, chess, tenpin bowling, shooting and showdown, as well as cricket, archery and tennis.
The men’s and women’s IBSA Blind Football World Championships and the partially sighted World Championships also took place as part of the event at the University of Birmingham campus in Edgbaston, Coventry Arena and other locations around the city.
In terms of overage, it was mostly shown on the IBSA website and social media channel but I also think Channel 4 streamed some events on its Youtube channel as well. I guess this isn’t a bad way to broadcast sport but again it wasn’t widely known and probably only a niche group watched it. I would have preferred a terrestrial TV channel such as Channel 4 to broadcast the whole event.
6. Invictus Games
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The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event first held in 2014, for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans – essentially the Military Paralympic Games.
The event has a variety of sports including athletics, swimming, cycling, powerlifting, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball and many more.
It has been live-streamed on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Red Button but, to be honest, I was only aware of this when scrolling BBC iPlayer trying to find coverage of a football match.
The only news coverage I’ve seen was before the games began and Prince Harry – the founder of the Invictus Games – visited England briefly before heading to Germany where the games were taking place. As predicted, people are more interested in Prince Harry being in Europe rather than the sport itself.
It’s great that the Invictus Games is available on the BBC but I feel it has still lacked publicity and news coverage. So, unless you happen to stumble across it on BBC iPlayer or the Red Button, most people wouldn’t know it was broadcast. It would be better if it was shown on BBC channels such as BBC One, BBC Two or BBC Three.
7. Disability cricket
I admit I’m not really a cricket fan or understand the sport but for those that do love it, it is a real shame disability cricket is not broadcast that often.
We reported in early September that the Disability Premier League Final was broadcast on Sky Sports Cricket, which was amazing news. However, I feel the full tournament should’ve been broadcast. And why just that competition? Could they broadcast disability cricket throughout the year?
Nevertheless, Richard Hill, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s disability cricket competitions manager, thinks the coverage of disability cricket is heading the right way.
Richard said: “What we witnessed last year in the DPL was phenomenal. I’ve been in and around disability cricket for more than 20 years and the standard in 2022 was unbelievable. When some of our early rounds were broadcast on the ECB YouTube channel, the professional commentators involved said they’d have thought it was just another game of first-class cricket. That’s a real motivator. It excites me to know we’re going in the right direction.”
Are sports broadcasters ableist?
So, after delving into a variety of disability sports and the coverage available, I would say steps are being taken to make disability sports more visible but I think more publicity and news coverage is required.
For instance, when football, rugby, tennis, cricket and other mainstream sports are scheduled to be broadcast, there are lots of trailers, previews, billboards, social media posts, pre-tournament press conferences and much more, days or weeks before a competition or sporting event.
Whereas I find very little to no publicity when it comes to disability sports unless it’s the Paralympics. Out of the seven disability sports mentioned above, only two – disability football and disability cricket – sent press enquiries to us at Crip Life™. Obviously, we are still a fairly new publication and therefore not all public relations companies may be aware of us at this stage. However, the rest of the disability sports, we just happened to come across on social media.
I understand advertising and publicity does cost money and therefore funding might be limited to some sporting organisations. But if they could send more press releases to publications, broadcast news organisations and news agencies, potentially more news coverage about upcoming disability sports events could appear.
Here at Crip Life™, we are more than happy to feature a mixture and diverse range of disability sports and athletes across all levels and abilities.
The more we spread the word about disability sports, the more likely broadcasters and society will see how incredible and talented disabled athletes can be, and that they can achieve at the same highest level as non-disabled athletes.
Another thing sports broadcasters should bear in mind is providing accessibility to disabled viewers. Like BT Sport did with disability football, providing audio description, subtitles and British Sign Language, I think all sports broadcasters should provide accessibility features, so all sports fans can access both disabled and non-disabled sports equally.
I don’t think sports broadcasters are deliberately being ablest. They just lack the knowledge and understanding of disability sports and how it can be just as powerful, entertaining and inspiring as any other sports.
Have you managed to watch any other disability sports over the summer? Do you think disability sports should be broadcast more on mainstream media? Are you a professional disabled athlete and feel you’d like your sport to be given more media coverage? Share your thoughts in the comments box or on social media.
