In­creas­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty must not be lim­it­ed to the able-bod­ied pop­u­la­tion. Peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties have an equal right to reap the im­mense health and fit­ness ben­e­fits of an ac­tive lifestyle.

This right is en­shrined in in­ter­na­tion­al law, no­tably the UN Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (UN­CR­PD).

Ar­ti­cle 30 of this legal­ly bind­ing doc­u­ment ex­plic­it­ly man­dates that “States Par­ties (Gov­ern­ments) shall take ap­pro­pri­ate mea­sures to en­cour­age and pro­mote the par­tic­i­pa­tion, to the fullest ex­tent pos­si­ble, of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties in main­stream sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties at all lev­els.”

Bar­ri­ers to par­tic­i­pa­tion

De­spite these hu­mane propo­si­tions, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean face sig­nif­i­cant bar­ri­ers to par­tic­i­pa­tion.

1. In­trin­sic fac­tors

These re­late to the in­di­vid­ual and of­ten stem from sys­temic fail­ures in in­for­ma­tion de­liv­ery. Many peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties suf­fer from a lack of knowl­edge about ex­ist­ing pro­grammes, fa­cil­i­ties, and re­sources (Parr, R and Mur­ray, C, 2024). This is­sue is com­pound­ed when pub­lic health cam­paigns and sports ad­vi­sories over­whelm­ing­ly em­pha­sise the able-bod­ied pop­u­la­tion, lead­ing to feel­ings of so­cial in­ef­fec­tive­ness or dis­cour­age­ment (Jones, D, & Clarke, S, 2023).

2. En­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors

This cat­e­go­ry en­com­pass­es the so­cial and phys­i­cal en­vi­ron­ment:

• At­ti­tu­di­nal Bar­ri­ers: Per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties of­ten face neg­a­tive be­hav­iours such as ex­clu­sion, ver­bal abuse, or vi­o­lence. These so­ci­etal prej­u­dices are pow­er­ful de­ter­rents to ac­cess­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties (Shep­pard, M, & Allen, F, 2025).

• Trans­port Bar­ri­ers: This is a huge hin­drance in the Caribbean. A lack of suit­able, af­ford­able, and ac­ces­si­ble trans­port can ren­der any ex­ist­ing fa­cil­i­ty un­reach­able, es­pe­cial­ly for in­di­vid­u­als with high­er sup­port needs (Bac­chus, A, et al, 2024).

• Bar­ri­ers of Omis­sion: This in­cludes poli­cies and fa­cil­i­ties that fail to specif­i­cal­ly ac­count for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties.

For in­stance, the Sport Pol­i­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go (2002) al­lud­ed to per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties; it lacked the spe­cif­ic, ac­tion­able strate­gies re­quired by UN­CR­PD Ar­ti­cle 30 for ef­fec­tive in­clu­sion. The 2017-2027 Sport Pol­i­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go, de­spite good in­ten­tions, fell short of be­ing com­pre­hen­sive in sev­er­al ar­eas:

• Lack of Spe­cif­ic Bud­get Man­dates: The pol­i­cy fails to man­date a spe­cif­ic, ded­i­cat­ed per­cent­age of the na­tion­al sport bud­get for Para-sport de­vel­op­ment, adap­tive equip­ment, and main­te­nance of ac­ces­si­ble in­fra­struc­ture (Gar­cia, R, et al, 2023).

• Vague Ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty Com­mit­ment: While the pol­i­cy speaks to “max­imis­ing the use of fa­cil­i­ties,” it lacks a mea­sur­able time­line or a spe­cif­ic tech­ni­cal stan­dard (eg, ad­her­ence to the In­ter­na­tion­al Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee [IPC] Ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty Guide or a na­tion­al stan­dard) for mak­ing all pub­lic sports fa­cil­i­ties ful­ly ac­ces­si­ble.

• Ex­clu­sion by Omis­sion in School Sport: The pol­i­cy does not clear­ly de­fine how stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties will be ful­ly in­te­grat­ed in­to main­stream school phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes and in­ter-school com­pe­ti­tions, mov­ing be­yond mere par­al­lel ac­tiv­i­ties.

• Ab­sence of Dis­abil­i­ty-Dis­ag­gre­gat­ed Da­ta: The pol­i­cy’s mon­i­tor­ing frame­work does not ex­plic­it­ly re­quire the col­lec­tion and re­port­ing of dis­abil­i­ty-dis­ag­gre­gat­ed par­tic­i­pa­tion da­ta (eg, by dis­abil­i­ty type, age, gen­der) to ef­fec­tive­ly track progress.

3. Lo­gis­ti­cal and com­mu­ni­ca­tion bar­ri­ers

• Lack of Spe­cialised Staff and Equip­ment: A short­age of coach­es, sports club man­agers, and tech­ni­cal per­son­nel trained to work with di­verse dis­abil­i­ties is a ma­jor op­er­a­tional bar­ri­er.

The high fi­nan­cial cost of adap­tive sports equip­ment is of­ten pro­hib­i­tive. (Source: sportand­dev)

Strate­gic ac­tions for

full com­pli­ance

To move be­yond pol­i­cy rhetoric and achieve full com­pli­ance with the UN­CR­PD, Trinidad and To­ba­go needs to fo­cus on the fol­low­ing strate­gic ac­tions:

1. Leg­is­la­tion and pol­i­cy align­ment: The Na­tion­al Pol­i­cy on Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (2005) must be up­dat­ed and legal­ly re­in­forced to clear­ly link with the Na­tion­al Pol­i­cy on Sport (2017-2027), cre­at­ing an en­force­able frame­work for in­clu­sion.

2. Stake­hold­er col­lab­o­ra­tion: Es­tab­lish a Stand­ing Com­mit­tee for In­clu­sive Sport com­prised of the MSYA, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, the Min­istry of Health, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee, Spe­cial Olympics Trinidad and To­ba­go (SOTT), and the Dis­abled Peo­ples’ In­ter­na­tion­al (DPI) to over­see the im­ple­men­ta­tion and bud­get­ing for in­clu­sive sport ini­tia­tives.

3. Me­dia and com­mu­ni­ca­tions strat­e­gy: The MSYA must part­ner with me­dia hous­es to run cam­paigns that specif­i­cal­ly com­bat at­ti­tu­di­nal bar­ri­ers and pro­mote the achieve­ments of para-ath­letes, shift­ing the cul­tur­al nar­ra­tive from pity to re­spect and em­pow­er­ment.

By ad­dress­ing these pol­i­cy gaps with spe­cif­ic, mea­sur­able, and fund­ed man­dates, Trinidad and To­ba­go can trans­form its sport­ing en­vi­ron­ment in­to a tru­ly eq­ui­table and in­clu­sive space for all its cit­i­zens.