Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council

 

 
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Athletics

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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