Disability sport: Call to make gyms more inclusive

A woman with a learning disability wants gyms to be more inclusive for people like her so they can reach their full potential.

Aisling McCooey, 33, from Omagh in County Tyrone, has been weightlifting for almost a year but previous gym experiences had almost put her off.

“We didn’t get what some of us wanted to achieve, which was basically a gym environment.”

Aisling says she was given lighter weights and a lot of “chair exercises”.

The charity Mencap, which supports people with learning disabilities, says it has been working hard to train gym staff on how better to support people who feel like they are “being treated differently”.

Karen Gilgunn from Mencap says research suggests that “someone with a learning disability will die 10 years earlier due to health inequalities”.

She says it is not that they are not aware of what they need to do but “it’s the barriers they face around inclusion”.

Mencap has trained more than 300 gym staff in Belfast in a learning disability awareness scheme because the charity has found that people don’t always know how best to give support.

“People with a learning disability want to be seen first for who they are,” says Karen.

“Not a misconception of what they can and cannot do.”

Judith Divers says her eight-year-old son Ben “finds his world a bit overwhelming at times” and she has found it difficult to access sport for him outside of school.

“Places that can meet his needs, that are of good times…..and even have enough staff to get to know him.”

Currently the only place she is able to take him for after school activities is Mencap.

Judith she would like him to have access to more facilities within the wider community that “he could mix with other people, either they have a disability or they don’t”.

She would like Ben to be able to participate in sport while “feeling really safe” but also “meeting his full potential as well”.

Aisling has now found a space that works for her at Delta gym in Omagh and she is enjoying the routine of going every morning.

“The coaches are brilliant,” she says.

“They treat you like a person who can achieve what you want to achieve,” she adds.

She says she is now lifting heavier weights than she ever did before.

“I want to be fitter, to be healthier and also to be a part of the community and show what we can do as well.”