Organisation Summary
Many people still face significant barriers to participating in mainstream sports through, disability, age, gender, background or poor self-perception.
IMAS breaks down these barriers by including participants with disablities who share learning through accessible training, helping create clubs and team environments that are safe, welcoming and non-judgmental.
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Type of activity
Mixed Abilty physical activity, sports, wellbeing and training.
Audience
- Age range: Any
- Gender: Mixed
- Inclusivity: Hearing impairment, Visual impairment, Learning disability, Mental health condition, Physical impairment and any other barriers to participation
Affiliation
Affiliated with Activity Alliance, England Rugby, England Boxing and Kin-ball UK
Organisation Description
International Mixed Ability Sports (IMAS) started in 2014 and since then has been driving social change by challenging societal norms about the capabilities of the disabled community. IMAS initially worked with England Rugby to create Mixed Ability rugby teams nationally and subsequently internationally. Currently there are 35 Mixed Ability rugby teams across the World. IMAS have coordinated 2 International Mixed Ability Rugby World Tournaments in 2015 and 2017 and are currently organising the 3rd International to be played in Cork, Ireland in 2020.
Mixed Ability is a social movement, using a revolutionary sports and education model to radically change the way grassroots sports clubs, coaches and ultimately wider society perceive disability. Too often mainstream sports categorise a person by their inabilities, ignoring their abilities. The Mixed Ability (MA) sports model sees the person first, as anyone can be affected by illness, injury or mental health problems and fall into the disabled category at any time. The MA sports model puts less-able and able participants together in the same team, engaging with each sport in the same way as mainstream squads, teams and crews. Our research has shown that in addition to those who would be labelled as less-able our model hugely benefits those marginalised through age, confidence, infirmity and lack of experience of sport, through increased fitness and social connectivity, as the part of the model enables equal membership of sports clubs.
A unique feature of the MA model is the use of participants to disseminate the positive messages about the benefits of participation in MA sports opportunities. Our trainers are disabled participants who have benefited from the model first-hand. They co-produce and co-present presentations used to recruit new clubs, coaches, partners and stakeholders, engaging our audiences with their stories of how Mixed Ability has personally affected them. This is often described in feedback as an emotional and magical feature of our work, as audience members hear how removing marginalisation and social isolation has positively influenced our co-presenters’ lives.
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