People with intellectual disability lack opportunities to engage in sports, although the benefits of doing so may be even greater for them. One option is to encourage their inclusion in mainstream sports clubs that exist in nearly all European communities. Although there is a growing knowledge base within organisations such as Special Olympics in adjusting sports to meet the needs of people with intellectual disability, inclusion in community clubs raises additional challenges. This exploratory study aimed to garner the experiences of coaches alongside those of clubs members—with and without disabilities—in 12 community sports clubs in three European countries. In all 20 coaches and 51 members took part in semi-structured interviews. A thematic content analysis was used to devise a conceptual model describing an inclusive sports club. The overarching theme was that inclusive clubs require an ongoing balancing between a focus on sporting skills and performance, with managing the needs and characteristics of the players and the inter-relationships among them. Six subthemes were identified that described the core strategies to the effective functioning of the clubs. However, the vision and commitment of coaches was crucial and their recruitment was the main challenge the clubs faced. In addition, new opportunities for training coaches are needed to support the extension of inclusive clubs across a range of sports and locations. Continuing research could usefully identify the benefits to club members and identify sport-specific adaptations required to make clubs more fully inclusive.

Including people with intellectual disability in sport is a challenge for coaches and particularly the inclusion of these players alongside non-disabled peers. Drawing initially on the experiences of 47 coaches recruited through Special Olympics, a self-completed assessment tool was devised that can be used to evaluate the promotion of social inclusion within sport teams and the wider community. The emerging tool was field-tested with 389 coaches in the USA and seven European countries. The resulting 13 or 20 item scale had commendable psychometric properties both in terms of internal and test-retest reliability with evidence also for its ecological and predictive validity. As well as its use as a self-assessment tool within training courses for coaches, it also opens research opportunities into the relationship between this measure of inclusion and outcomes for both the coaches and for the players.

Sport has been promoted as a means of increasing the social inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities. Suitable tools for evaluating this claim are not readily available. The aim of this study was to develop a self-report tool for use by people with intellectual disabilities regarding the social inclusion they experience in sport and in the community. A three-phase process was used. In the first phase an item bank of questionnaire items was created and field-tested with 111 participants. Initial factor analysis identified 42 items which were further evaluated in Phase 2 with 941 participants from six European countries. Construct validity was established first through Exploratory and then Confirmatory factor analysis. These analyses identified ten items relating to inclusion in sports and ten to inclusion in local communities. A third phase checked the usability and test-retest reliability of the short form with a further 228 participants. In all, 1280 athletes and non-disabled partners were involved from eight countries. This short social inclusion questionnaire has been shown to be a reliable and valid measure for use transnationally. Further psychometric properties remain to be tested; notably its sensitivity to change resulting from interventions aimed at promoting social inclusion.

Despite progress in implementing the rights outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, individuals with intellectual disability encounter challenges in participating in daily life autonomously. Exclusion and stereotypes persist, impacting education, employment, and social participation. Inclusive sports programs, particularly the Special Olympics Unified Sports® program, aim to enhance social inclusion for these persons. This quantitative cross-sectional study compares attitudes across three groups: Unified Sports® partners, volunteers, and general population. Attitudes were measured using the Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability Questionnaire. Results reveal that both Unified Sports® partners and volunteers exhibit more positive attitudes compared to the general population. More frequent contact with individuals with intellectual disability is associated with more positive attitudes. While limitations exist, this study provides insights into the relationship between inclusive sports programs and attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disability, laying the groundwork for further research and practical applications.

Zusammenfassung. Die Teilhabe von Menschen mit einer peripheren arteriellen Verschlusskrankheit (pAVK) am Alltag ist aufgrund der krankheitsbedingten Beschwerden stark eingeschränkt. Sport- und Bewegungstherapie kann helfen, wenn das Gefäßsporttraining regelmäßig und dauerhaft durchgeführt wird. Diese beiden Voraussetzungen werden aber von einem Großteil der Patienten trotz hoher Intention nicht erfüllt. Um diese Intentions-Verhaltens-Lücke zu überwinden, wurde eine volitional ausgerichtete Intervention bei 90 Patienten in einem experimentellen Design hinsichtlich ihrer Wirksamkeit überprüft. In einer experimentellen Studie mit drei Messzeitpunkten wurden die Patienten der Experimentalgruppe in der Bildung von Ausführungs- und Bewältigungsplänen durch eine kurze psychologische Intervention unterstützt. Die Erhöhung der Handlungskontrolle wurde durch wöchentliche Erinnerungen an die aufgestellten Pläne über sechs Wochen angestrebt. Varianzanalytische Überprüfungen bestätigen die Hypothese, dass motivierte pAVK-Patienten von dieser Intervention profitieren. Sowohl die volitionale Kompetenz als auch die tatsächlich durchgeführte körperliche Aktivität unterscheiden sich signifikant von den Werten der Kontrollgruppe.

A crucial of aim of Special Olympics (SO) is the promotion of social inclusion for persons with intellectual disability (ID). A transnational study had devised an easy-to-use, instrument to obtain valid data from people with ID. The present study tested the sensitivity of the instrument in two ways. Scores of three sets of participants in SO (n = 231) were compared to those of pupils from special schools (n = 87) and with people living in sheltered workshops (n = 92), none of whom participated in SO. Second, the sheltered workshop participants were supported to join SO clubs and pre-post comparisons were undertaken of their inclusion ratings eight months later. Results showed a clear distinction between the scores across the SO participants and with the non-participants. Moreover there was a significant impact on participants' community inclusion scores on joining SO. Thus this simple, self-report measure is sensitive to detecting changes across different samples and over time.