December 16, 2025
Dr. Andrea Bundon examines how ableism excludes disabled Canadians at every level of sport, from participation to leadership, and what must change to ensure meaningful access for all.
For millions of disabled Canadians, sport presents a contradiction: it promises improved physical and mental wellness while also carrying potential for exclusion and harm. To better understand the complexities surrounding access, representation and ableism in sport, we spoke with Dr. Andrea Bundon, Associate Professor and critical disability scholar in the Faculty of Education’s School of Kinesiology.
Why is access to sport so vital for disabled people?
Dr. Andrea Bundon: Sport can play an essential role in the lives of disabled individuals, just as it can for everyone, offering well-established physical and mental health benefits. For many disabled participants, access to sport is also about fostering connections to people, community and place. These social and relational dimensions are closely tied to a sense of belonging and well-being, particularly for those who often experience greater isolation.
How can sport also be a source of harm?
Ableist attitudes in sport often reinforce non-disabled norms, preventing many people who want to participate from doing so fully. These biases can shape coaching practices: when athletes are assumed to be less capable or more fragile, they may be sidelined or pushed in ways that don’t reflect their abilities. Alternatively, ableism can also take the form of pressuring disabled people to ignore their bodies’ needs or to train in ways that are inappropriate and unsafe.
There is also a tendency to frame disability sport through medical or rehabilitative lenses, as something that “restores” health. This perspective can inadvertently position non-disabled coaches and administrators as “saviours,” treating disabled athletes as if they need to be fixed. Even when well-intentioned, this framing is stigmatizing and overlooks the social, cultural and community dimensions that make sport meaningful.
A further challenge is that disabled athletes often have very limited options when it comes to finding clubs or programs in their area. And if they do find a program that turns out to have a harmful environment, leaving can mean losing the opportunity to participate in their sport altogether. This scarcity of viable alternatives increases pressure to tolerate mistreatment and underscores why addressing ableism is essential to ensuring safety in sport.
“By valuing disabled expertise and lived experience, and empowering participation in leadership, we can build a sport system that is more accessible, innovative and equitable for everyone.”
How is disability addressed—or overlooked—in Canada’s sport system?
In Canada, disability in sport is primarily addressed through Parasport, a term referring to sports on the Paralympic program. However, Parasport reaches only a small number of people and was designed to be selective, which is appropriate when other accessible options exist.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, people with disabilities are entitled to safe, accessible sport in all settings, including mainstream schools, community recreation and local clubs. Yet funding and policy in Canada continue to prioritize high-performance sport.
Sport Canada’s funding structures are not designed to support everyday, community-based programs. Instead, these programs are run by a mix of provinces, municipalities, park boards, schools and regional clubs, each with its own approach to inclusion. The result is a patchwork system in which Parasport is the most developed component, but still serves relatively few people.
What does meaningful inclusion in mainstream sport require?
Many barriers aren’t intentional. They often stem from concerns about expertise, fear of liability or a desire to keep someone “safe.” Meaningful inclusion requires questioning why risk is framed differently for disabled participants, given that risk is accepted in sport all the time, and that inactivity carries far greater harms.
Inclusion also means looking beyond athletes. Disabled people can be parents, coaches, officials, volunteers, spectators or board members. With roughly 30% of Canadians identifying as having a disability, creating opportunities across these roles helps ensure that sport reflects the communities it serves.
Finally, inclusion depends on practical local actions, such as discussing support needs, removing physical barriers or adapting registration processes. Small, thoughtful steps can make sport accessible without requiring monumental change.
Where do you see opportunities to reimagine sport in Canada?
Disability-led organizations are already doing impressive work, but they can’t—and shouldn’t—be expected to transform the system alone. Lasting change requires sustained national support, meaningful investment and strong local partnerships.
Ultimately, centring disabled voices is key. Disabled people must be recognized not as passive recipients of programming, but as leaders, decision-makers and holders of critical expertise with genuine influence over priorities, resources and structures.
Kinesiology programs, which prepare students for careers in sport, physical education and health-related fields, also play a critical role. Disability is still too often framed through medical or rehabilitative lenses, positioning disabled people as subjects of intervention rather than collaborators or leaders. Equally important is how students with disabilities experience and move through these programs, as this pathway is essential to building sustained disability leadership in sport.
By valuing disabled expertise and lived experience, and empowering participation in leadership, we can build a sport system that is more accessible, innovative and equitable for everyone.
What can we do in our own communities to support inclusion in sport?
Change often starts locally. One of the most important steps is to start the conversation. Ask your local club, school or recreation program how they support disabled athletes and those who want to coach, officiate or volunteer.
In a ski program I’ve been part of, the facility used to only shovel out their accessible parking on days when we were running our adaptive ski program. We started calling and reminding them to do it every snowfall until it eventually became part of their routine.
Now, individuals who use a sit ski can show up any day without being registered in a program, and know they can get on the snow. When we focus on practical adjustments and lead with the question, “What do you need to participate?”, we create environments where disabled people don’t just access sport, they belong in it.
What drew you to this area of scholarship?
While completing my master’s degree at UBC, I contacted a para-Nordic team to recruit research participants. The coach told me that I could speak to the team – but only after I skied with them. The evening I went out, one visually impaired athlete was without her usual guide. I guided her, and she invited me back.
We ended up skiing and racing together for four years as she trained for the 2010 Paralympics. She encouraged me to focus my research on disability sport, saying, “We need more of this work.”
We used to joke that I guided her on the trails, but she guided me in every other way. Through her and many others, I learned about the ableism and advocacy that shape disabled athletes’ experiences. Those lessons continue to guide my work today.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
