U.S. Department of Education issues ‘landmark’ directive for disabled student athletes

[Tony_FLADEM]

In what is being hailed as a “landmark moment” that will do for students with disabilities what Title IX did for female athletes, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued a directive Friday detailing how schools are bound by federal law to ensure that students with disabilities are given equal opportunities to compete in school athletics.

Advocates say that the new guidelines give teeth to a previously vague policy and offer more specifics as to how schools should do more to provide for and include students with disabilities in school sports programs.

The newly stated guidelines, which cover interscholastic, club and intramural sports at all education levels, stress that schools must make “reasonable modifications” for students with disabilities who are otherwise qualified to play on mainstream teams whenever possible as long as those modifications do not fundamentally alter the way the sport is played.

The guidelines also stipulate that schools are obligated to pursue other sports opportunities, such as wheelchair-based teams, when modifications cannot be made to play on the mainstream teams.

“It’s a landmark moment for students with disabilities,” said Terri Lakowski, policy chair of the Inclusive Fitness Coalition, a group of 200 organizations that advocates for disability rights.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/us-department-of-education-issues-landmark-directive-for-disabled-student-athletes/2013/01/25/b03f5cae-6737-11e2-9e1b-07db1d2ccd5b_story.html

[kickysnana]

1. The MN Cojoined twins who are now teachers played volley ball in high school

but only intramural in college. They attended Bethel a private Christian college in in Roseville, Minnesota.

Having tripped over my own feet many times, and zigged when I should have zagged, I was amazed that they were so good at it. One sister controls the left the other the right side of their body.

I think that they have made a difference in perceptions in many areas and I wonder if they had been born in another geography if their story might have been very different.