Disabled Students Win "Historic" Battle Over Title IX & College Sports

[superman7515]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...tion-dept?lite

The feds are ordering schools across the country to make "reasonable" changes to sports programs so that disabled students can play — or else create separate teams for them.

The new guidance from the Education Department issued Friday was hailed by advocates for the disabled but denounced by a conservative think-tank that said it could cost big bucks for cash-strapped schools.

"We think it’s huge and historic. In my opinion it could have the same effect, if properly implemented, as Title IX did for women," said Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA.

Title IX required schools to offer girls and boys the same athletic opportunities and resulted in a huge uptick in female participation in school sports after it took effect 40 years ago.

The new order from the Education Department says athletics is also a civil right for the disabled and schools that don’t protect it could lose federal funding.

Under the latest rules, schools must tweak traditional programs to give qualified disabled students a shot at playing as long as they can do it without fundamentally changing the sport or giving anyone an advantage.

For instance, a visual aid instead of a starter pistol for the deaf runner would be easy to implement, while adding a fifth base to a baseball field to shorten running distances would be considered too big a change.

[citdog]

[youngterrier]

I can see why this is a thing. With that said, they should definitely be separate. If not, they'll be used as a weapon in the sense that no one wants to tackle the kid in the wheel chair (or some won't be able to) and other such instances.

[ITmonarch10]

I can see why this is a thing. With that said, they should definitely be separate. If not, they'll be used as a weapon in the sense that no one wants to tackle the kid in the wheel chair (or some won't be able to) and other such instances.

What sport could they go with for disabled students as a whole? My guess they probably focus mostly on individual sports rather than any team sports.
On a side note, maybe we won't suck so much for the Paralympic Games.

[BlueHenSinfonian]

Under the latest rules, schools must tweak traditional programs to give qualified disabled students a shot at playing as long as they can do it without fundamentally changing the sport or giving anyone an advantage.

For instance, a visual aid instead of a starter pistol for the deaf runner would be easy to implement, while adding a fifth base to a baseball field to shorten running distances would be considered too big a change.

That bit makes me think that this won't end up being a very big deal. Letting someone play football in a wheelchair could be seen as fundamentally changing the sport, as would making someone 'off limits' to tackle.

[UCABEAR]

I know wheelchair basketball is big in many places. Arkansas has the rolling Razorbacks.

Plus didn't I see that Sam has a deaf kid playing football for them now? While that's not a physical impairment like a wheelchair, I'm sure some things have to be done different to help him play. Proud of him and Sam for making that happen!

I'm not sure of this ruling though for sports like football. When being illusive is the key to scoring on some plays, the level of disability of the participant can either help that or hurt that. But who knows. Guess we'll see how this all pans out.

[bonarae]

Will this decision create more diversity in the training pool for the various Special Olympics and the Paraplegic Games events?

[citdog]

Will this decision create more diversity in the training pool for the various Special Olympics and the Paraplegic Games events?

[Laker]

make "reasonable" changes?

My idea of reasonable and their idea of reasonable are as different as night and day.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Upon an initial read of the actual letter from the Assistant Secretary of Civil RIghts there seems to be a lot less there than meets the eye.

Some observations:

1. What's most interesting about this is that there doesn't appear to be any lawsuit, or "underrepresented people" here, that are clamoring for equal access. It seems like a study was made by the GAO - unprompted? - and came to a conclusion that better information was needed for schools to "clarify their responsibilities" for giving students with disabilities access. This is very different from Title IX where there were lawsuits and people who wanted to field a team but were denied.

2. Plenty of kids with "disabilities" already perform on all sorts of college teams, so Title IX-like quotas wouldn't seem to apply. Let's say a football player has diabetes (an elementary student with diabetes is actually used as an example in the letter). As long as he can do the work and there's some sort of athletics support staff that can help him with his "disability" of diabetes in the form of, say, insulin shots or something like that, I would think that the team would provide equal access to those kids with particular disabilities. Learning disabilities would likely be covered, too, through the counseling already required by most schools thanks to APR requirements.

Just thinking out loud here. What do others think?