This ar­ti­cle of­fers a re­flec­tion of my ex­pe­ri­ence fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of the sec­ond edi­tion of the Com­mon­wealth Sport’s flag­ship Para sport de­vel­op­ment pro­gramme, GAPS (Gath­er, Ad­just, Pre­pare, Sus­tain) Amer­i­c­as & Caribbean, which was held in Ja­maica from Ju­ly 20 to 26, 2025. My views were pro­found­ly shaped by the pro­gramme’s abil­i­ty to il­lu­mi­nate the pow­er of sport to trans­form lives, par­tic­u­lar­ly the lives of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (PWDs).

GAPS is a liv­ing, breath­ing space of con­nec­tion, dis­cov­ery, and re­flec­tion. Host­ed by the Fac­ul­ty of Sport at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ (UWI) Mona cam­pus, the very lo­ca­tion served as a re­minder that the uni­ver­si­ty is not just a place of aca­d­e­m­ic pur­suit, but al­so a hub for so­cial trans­for­ma­tion.

From the very be­gin­ning, the at­mos­phere was rich in cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty. Coach­es, Para ath­letes, and fa­cil­i­ta­tors from across the Amer­i­c­as and the Caribbean came to­geth­er to cre­ate a mi­cro­cosm of what an in­clu­sive so­ci­ety could look like. The ex­pe­ri­ence was a strik­ing sym­bol of the pow­er of con­nec­tion and a pro­found demon­stra­tion that there is far more that unites us than di­vides us. Through sport, the per­ceived bar­ri­ers of na­tion­al­i­ty, cul­ture, and even dis­abil­i­ty dis­solved in­to a shared sense of be­long­ing and pur­pose.

GAPS has been de­lib­er­ate­ly de­signed to bridge the lit­er­al and fig­u­ra­tive gaps that ex­ist in our so­ci­eties. In a world where the ac­knowl­edge­ment of PWDs re­mains un­even, this pro­gramme pro­vides a crit­i­cal space for ca­pac­i­ty build­ing. It sup­ports coach­es and Para ath­letes not on­ly in hon­ing their tech­ni­cal skills but al­so in em­bark­ing on jour­neys of self-dis­cov­ery. Par­tic­i­pants were en­cour­aged to find their voice, to ar­tic­u­late their iden­ti­ty, and to en­gage in self-re­flec­tion that em­pow­ers them to be­come ad­vo­cates and change­mak­ers in their re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties.

One of the most mem­o­rable as­pects of the camp was the op­por­tu­ni­ty to hear the sto­ries of Ja­maica’s Par­a­lympic sport icons, Neville Sin­clair, Alphon­so Cun­ning­ham and Sylvia Grant. Their jour­neys were in­spi­ra­tional and a re­sound­ing call to ac­tion. Each sto­ry high­light­ed the per­sis­tent bar­ri­ers faced by PWDs in sport and so­ci­ety, from in­fra­struc­tur­al lim­i­ta­tions to the lack of sus­tained in­sti­tu­tion­al sup­port. Yet, their per­se­ver­ance and suc­cess un­der­scored a sim­ple truth: mean­ing­ful in­clu­sion re­quires col­lec­tive and in­ten­tion­al ac­tion from all of us. And while these bar­ri­ers per­sist­ed, the re­solve to thrive be­yond the bar­ri­ers was ev­i­dent in the tremen­dous suc­cess achieved by these Ja­maican pow­er­house Para ath­letes.

Aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, this camp res­onat­ed deeply with on­go­ing re­search at UWI ex­am­in­ing the pol­i­cy land­scape for PWDs in the Caribbean. Find­ings con­sis­tent­ly show that sport for PWDs of­ten re­mains side­lined, un­der­fund­ed, and de­pri­ori­tised. If we are to shift this re­al­i­ty, gov­ern­ments, na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions, the pri­vate sec­tor, and civ­il so­ci­ety must take a de­ci­sive ap­proach to re­form. This in­cludes en­shrin­ing poli­cies and sys­tems that make in­clu­sion a lived re­al­i­ty rather than an as­pi­ra­tional con­cept.

GAPS serves as a tan­gi­ble re­sponse to this re­gion­al chal­lenge. It rais­es the pro­file and vis­i­bil­i­ty of sport for PWDs, while al­so serv­ing as an in­cu­ba­tor for ad­vo­ca­cy and cross-cul­tur­al ex­change. The pro­gramme builds a foun­da­tion for long-term so­cial change. It chal­lenges the dom­i­nant nar­ra­tives that have his­tor­i­cal­ly de­fined PWDs by their lim­i­ta­tions, in­stead spot­light­ing their abil­i­ties, as­pi­ra­tions, and con­tri­bu­tions.

As our Caribbean so­ci­eties un­der­go the process of so­ci­etal trans­for­ma­tion, the in­creas­ing recog­ni­tion of the im­por­tance of cre­at­ing and el­e­vat­ing spaces where PWDs can be ful­ly en­fran­chised and cel­e­brat­ed is be­gin­ning to take cen­tre stage. This aware­ness is not mere­ly about in­clu­sion; it is about build­ing a so­ci­ety that recog­nis­es the in­her­ent val­ue and con­tri­bu­tion of every in­di­vid­ual.

Per­haps the most last­ing im­pres­sion I car­ry from the camp is the feel­ing of ca­ma­raderie and mu­tu­al re­spect that per­me­at­ed every in­ter­ac­tion. There was an un­spo­ken un­der­stand­ing that this was more than a camp; it was a space of trans­for­ma­tion. It was a plat­form where par­tic­i­pants were seen, heard, and val­ued. It was al­so a mir­ror, re­flect­ing to each of us the work that re­mains to be done to make in­clu­sion the norm, not the ex­cep­tion, in our so­ci­eties.

As the cur­tains closed on GAPS II, I left in­spired and chal­lenged. In­spired by the courage and re­silience of Para ath­letes, the pas­sion of coach­es who see be­yond bar­ri­ers, and the com­mit­ment of in­sti­tu­tions like The UWI that con­tin­ue to cham­pi­on re­gion­al trans­for­ma­tion. Chal­lenged, be­cause this ex­pe­ri­ence is a re­minder that change re­quires pol­i­cy ac­tion, com­mu­ni­ty ac­tion, and per­son­al ac­tion.

The jour­ney to­wards a tru­ly in­clu­sive Caribbean is on­go­ing. Yet, if the GAPS pro­gramme is any in­di­ca­tion, we are mov­ing in the right di­rec­tion. By fos­ter­ing spaces of con­nec­tion, self-dis­cov­ery, and ca­pac­i­ty build­ing, we are not on­ly de­vel­op­ing Para sport but al­so help­ing to re­shape our so­ci­eties to re­flect the prin­ci­ples of eq­ui­ty and dig­ni­ty. And per­haps, in do­ing so, we are al­so bridg­ing the most im­por­tant gap: build­ing a so­ci­ety where all can have a sense of free­dom and be­long­ing.

Ryan O Brath­waite is a grad­u­ate stu­dent in the Fac­ul­ty of Sport - UWI, Mona Cam­pus