You don’t assume every non-disabled person is an olympian so don’t assume that every disabled person must want to or be able to compete at the paralympics.

Sometimes it can seem like the only kind of disabled person who is acceptable are the paralympians and all other disabled people should be pitied. I think this is partly because the paralympics is the only time that the public is exposed to lots of disabled people on TV & in their new cycles. Although a shift is slowly happening I think this is still the case so people think the only way you can be successful as a disabled person is in sports.

But this just isn’t the case. Just like non-disabled people many disabled people simply aren’t interested in becoming elite sports people and have other passions, interests & talents. Believe it or not Paralympic sport is often not accessible to every kind of disability and there are lots of strict criteria of who is allowed to compete. I love that a variety of disabilities are showcased at the paralympics but there are big gaps for those with complex physical or medical conditions. And just because something is possible for certain paralympians there are lots of reasons why it may not be possible or accessible for other disabled people. Disability sport can also be very hard to access which we have really discovered during my average disabled Jen series because it took a lot of research to find the things we’ve found. For some activities there was absolutely nothing local & for others there’s been no response and some of these I’ve reached out to multiple times over the years wanting to give the sport a try.

There are loads of reasons to love the paralympics but remember these are elite athletes. They are not amazing ‘considering’, they are just amazing. They’re not overcoming their disability to achieve, they’re just achieving as a person with a disability. And not every disabled person can or wants to be a paralympian so don’t assume that they do.