In the process of forming an inclusive environment, educators, coaches and athletes alike have created many great modified activities to accommodate athletes, students and citizens of all sorts and sizes alike! Goalball is an adapted physical activity that blind athletes participate in at a professional level but anyone can play! There are bells within the ball so athletes can hear where the ball is. This is just one of many modified activities to create an inclusive physical environment for everyone to participate in!

There are all sorts of activities and modifications available. Wheelchair basketball is another modified activity :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiza34wNEbM

…and even if you don’t have enough (sport) wheelchairs to go around, feel free to adapt! This is a beautiful example of ingenuity at it’s finest.

The purpose of incorporating such activities into a Physical Education environment is to ensure that everyone has a chance to participate as well as includes students who are not regularly able to participate in traditional PE activities. Students in wheelchairs or with certain disorders can easily be excluded in PE environments as traditional games and activities do not take account their personal condition. Then, there are also students who do not agree with traditional drill and game methods or simply do not like sport but may be interested in a modified physical education session. These activities can alleviate pressure to win as they focus on the process and allow students to enjoy through more learning opportunities. I never thought about modifying traditional games to such an extent to incorporate students of all shapes, sizes and abilities.

For me, inclusive physical activity is something I can keep in mind when designing lesson plans to try to move away from traditional drill and game method and turn it into an activity! Turning something into an activity removes the pressure of having to compete competitively and allows students to focus on the process. Skills, movements and tactics CAN still be practice within this method to improve physical literacy. Most importantly, students are still engaged and are still getting their required exercise. Additionally, there is an opportunity here for students to raise their awareness about certain challenges people face. Games like Goalball are fun to play but allow students to reflect on how hard the task at hand was. This physical experience allows them to understand certain struggles people with disabilities have while seeing that opportunity still exists for them. Inclusive physical activity is a good way to modify a P.E lesson plan to accommodate any personal needs students have.

Rock out!