How can the government encourage participation in sports and physical education among the elderly and handicapped?
A handicapped person is one who has some condition that markedly restricts their ability to function physically or mentally or socially while an elderly person may be defined as someone who is old or past the middle age. In today’s society both of these persons are considered disabled. These are people who have had little or no experience of physical activity or exercise and they firstly need to develop their motor skills through adapted physical activity programmes. However, appropriate opportunities for these people must be developed especially in physical education and sports. In addition there are some barriers that greatly contribute to low levels of their participation in physical activity and sports this includes poor provision of physical education (PE) in the community , negative experiences from society, low expectations from teachers, families and peers, lack of knowledge of what is available, lack of information and expertise, poor community facilities and lack of access to facilities and programmes, transportation difficulties, lack of coverage of a wide range of sports in the media, lack of experience of the benefits of physical activity, untrained staff and lack of accessible facilities, lack of companions who can facilitate/assist people with disabilities to access facilities and programmes when required, inadequate sponsorship and coaching and a lack of a culture of general participation in physical exercise and sport. In order to successfully address these range of barriers the government must play a role by allowing persons with disabilities to be granted access to physical exercise, through recreational and competitive sport and a physical education curriculum must be planned for and incorporated into all structures, strategies and programmes. These include community facilities, leisure and sporting venues for these persons to go to daily or weekly to learn a sport or just to do some exercises just like the non-disabled persons. However, this will greatly raise their self-esteem and make society change their views about them not being able to do sports like non-disabled persons. Also national, regional and local strategies and public awareness campaigns, physical activity and sports programmes should be implemented in the community. The government should also allow the media to be more inclusive by developing strategies that allot space to a diversity of sports and should portray images of persons with a disability engaging in a sport and physical activity. People with a disability should be recruited for training and employment in the field of leisure and sports because they can better understand people in their caliber. Moreover the government can greatly encourage physical education among the elderly and handicapped by getting willing and educated physical education teachers and firstly teaching them about the range of factors that affect people with disabilities participating in physical activity and sport and how it can be used to develop inclusive physical activity and sports programmes for them. With this persons can better understand a disabled person and work with their disability to effectively increase their participation in sports and physical education.