| There are a growing number of opportunities for children
and adults with disabilities to participate in sports and other indoor and
outdoor physical activity. Adaptive athletics is about overcoming personal
limitations. We've listed some of the organizations that either sponsor
programs and events or provide information on how you can get involved.
Special Olympics Rhode
Island. Special Olympics Rhode Island provides year-round sports training
and athletic competition for more than 2,250 children and adults with mental
retardation and/or closely related developmental disabilities.
Therapeutic Riding
Turning Pointe.
Provides individuals of all ages who have physical, cognitive and emotional
disabilities the opportunity to experience a variety of therapeutic equestrian
activities in a safe, secure environment.
Greenlock Center. Horseback riding
for people of all ages with physical, developmental or emotional disabilities.
It is a place where 130 riders, with all types of disabilities, come six days a
week to sit on the Greenlock horses to strengthen their legs, to teach their
body what balance is for and to learn to hold their head up by themselves.
Also: Rainbows End Therapeutic Riding Center 12 Jarvis Lane, North
Attleboro, MA 02769 (508) 643-9871 and Teaberry Knoll Academy of Therapeutic
Riding, Inc. (NHRHA accredited) 201 Miller Street, Seekonk, MA 02771 (508)
336-6555.
Other Athletic Programs
access2adventure (a2a). Provides
opportunities for people with physical disabilities living in Southern New
England to participate in a variety of sports, recreational activities and
adventure travel.
National Disability Sports Alliance
(NDSA). All NDSA activities are coordinated from its office at the
University of Rhode Island. To find out more about NDSA and the disability
sports movement, contact NDSA executive director Jerry McCole.
Shake-A-Leg Sailing.
Fully accessible facility at Fort Adams State Park for all ages. Sailing
opportunities in custom-designed boats are open to individuals with physical
and developmental disabilities (groups welcome).
AccesSportAmerica. Offers daily,
weekly or summer long programs for people with disabilities through
affiliations with camps, schools and hospitals. New England programs
include those at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston; Reservoir
Pond in Canton; State Beach, Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard;
Jetties Beach in Nantucket; and Kezar Lake in Sutton, New Hampshire.
Adapts or creates equipment to allow people with disabilities to
participate in "high challenge" sports such as surfing,
water-skiing, sailing, kayaking and rowing as well as wall climbing,
soccer, cycling, and tennis.
The Celtics. New England Paralyzed
Veterans of America (NEPVA) sponsors this wheelchair basketball team that plays
exhibition games with able-bodied people in wheelchairs, usually town
officials, policemen, firemen or teachers. Players are from Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Canada.
New England Handicapped Sports Association
(NEHSA). Offers adaptive ski and snowboard lessons for people of all ages
and all disabilities at Mount Sunapee, New Hampshire.
Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports
(VASS). Offers low-cost sports and recreation programs for people with
disabilities. Teaching techniques and equipment are adapted to make the most of
student strengths. Programs include downhill skiing, sailing, snowboarding,
rock climbing, water skiing, horseback riding, canoeing, and kayaking.
Northeast Passage. A program of the
University of New Hampshire and an Affiliate of Disabled Sports USA. Offers
adapted sports and recreation instructional clinics, accessible vacations,
adapted equipment rental, and resource referral for individuals with physical
disabilities, their friends and families. Consults for schools, businesses,
groups and individuals on accessibility, inclusion and adapted sports and
recreation.
The Children's Physical Developmental
Clinic. A unique physical, motor and recreation program that has been
serving children with disabilities from Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island
since January 1974. The program is designed to enhance perceptual-motor, gross
motor, sport, aquatic and leisure skills as well as social development of
children and youth with disabilities, ages 18 months to 18 years.
First Swing Rhode Island.
Conducts golf clinics for people with disabilities and instructional clinics
for therapists.
Access to Recreation. California mail
order company. Offers free catalogs full of adaptive exercise and recreation
equipment for fishing, hunting, golf, swimming, bowling, knitting and much
more.
PALAESTRA. A quarterly publication
of sport, physical education and recreation for people with disabilities.
PALAESTRA's mission: to enlighten parents in all aspects of physical activity,
making them the best advocates for their children during Individualized
Education Plan discussions with school or community recreation staffs.
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