Disabled Sports Society may be a possibility

by Colin Robertson

The Disabled Students Assembly, which started at UAL last year was a pro-active step into creating a base for disabled students to work from, but to date there have been no sports sides set up - there isn't even a Disability Sports Society, while there are thousands of students at UAL affected in some way or another by a disability.

Heather Symonds, a specialist in neuro disabilties, from the UAL Disability Committee explained: "There are one in five people at the university who have a disability - on average 10 per cent of those, are likely to be physical disabilities."

She is open to the idea of creating more sports provisions across the disabled arena, and is keen that before anything is put in place, all means are tested: "There has been a recent survey carried out by the student diversity officer and the results are being collated." She, advocates that more things can be can be done saying: "[she] would personally like to see more links to useful websites put on the SU site."

Kit Friend, Campaigns & Communications Officer, made a finer point: "The most common disability at UAL is dyslexia - how accessible our sports are to dyslexic students might be an interesting angle to pursue."

Chances for a disability sports society

Bess Frimodig, from UAL Disability Support is also in favour of the prospect for Disabilty sports at UAL, she said: "It is a fantastic idea - it is important for everyone to have a place to belong to. Sport is a great way to develop teamworking and skill building. Sport also gives participants release from their every day schedules, installs discipline and can offer a great source of motivation and reward."

Carly Aslett, Cultural and Diversity officer is ready to back any students who would step forwards and create a new society: "If the students wanted to I would be 100 per cent behind them." The call for the ignition from within the student community is echoed by Symonds: "It is good for the students to be pro-active as they have closest view point for their needs."

Aslett is aware that there are already similar schemes running accross other universities in London: "We could look at other universities to find out what is working well already. It certainly might be a requirement to network for competition and to steady the number of participants while such a society was in its early stages. There is also a Disability Allowance at the University to aid these type of ventures."

Anyone looking to set up a society at UAL can do so by visiting suarts.org/sportsandsocs.