Participation Matters: Why Disability Sport Is Occupational Therapy in Action
This OT Week’s theme — “Participation Matters: Transforming Lives Through Meaningful Occupation” — is powerfully embodied in disability sport.
For those recovering from injury or living with disability, sport is rarely just exercise. Research shows the quality of a person’s participation matters more than the quantity: a Canadian study of 535 adults with physical disabilities found that feelings of belonging and mastery predicted wellbeing far better than hours spent active (Martin Ginis et al., 2024).
That quality is built from six psychological elements — autonomy, belonging, challenge, engagement, mastery, and meaning (Evans et al., 2018) — and South African Paralympians describe this in their own words: disability sport as a reason to exist, a source of purpose after injury, and above all, a rebuilt community. As one athlete put it, sport “makes me feel normal again” (Kunene, 2025).
This is occupational therapy’s core philosophy in motion: recovery isn’t just physical restoration, it’s re-engagement in purposeful, connected activity. Real barriers — access, funding, coaching, stigma — still stand in the way of disability sport (Kunene, 2025), which is exactly why OTs have a role in prescribing and advocating for it as part of rehabilitation and living a balanced life, not an optional extra.
Participation matters. For people recovering from injury or living with disability, disability sport may be one of the most powerful forms of it we have.
References
Evans, M. B., Shirazipour, C. H., Allan, V., Zanhour, M., Sweet, S. N., Martin Ginis, K. A., & Latimer-Cheung, A. E. (2018). Integrating insights from the parasport community to understand optimal experiences: The Quality Parasport Participation Framework. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 37, 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.04.009
Kunene, S. H. (2025). Barriers, facilitators of sports participation and needs of South African Paralympians. African Journal of Disability, 14(0), a1532. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajod.v14i0.1532
Martin Ginis, K. A., Gee, C. M., Sinden, A. R., Tomasone, J. R., & Latimer-Cheung, A. E. (2024). Relationships between sport and exercise participation and subjective well-being among adults with physical disabilities: Is participation quality more important than participation quantity? Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 70, 102535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102535