Our oldest son is an Aspie with a special interest in sport and fitness. Despite having both fine and gross motor skills issues, compounded by the usual social and communications hassle, he's managed to master riding a bike (five years but he got there), learn to swim (quite well and with good endurance) and has played rugby (in local club teams) for six years. He does weight training three times a week, cardio circuits twice a week, and does cross-country runs three times a week. The mental health workers and psychologists who work with his social skills group say his physical skills are outstanding compared with most Aspies—largely down to his obsession with his getting his form 100% correct. It might take him years to get something right, but if that's what it takes…
However, as he heads into his mid-teens he's finding it increasingly difficult to take part as sport clubs and coaches don't want Aspies (swimming club wouldn't take him, football didn't work, current rugby coach is very negative etc.) The majority of players are very good—seeing his idiosyncracies as no different to the rituals of professional athletes—but club officials and coaches find it too difficult, to challenging and too threatening to have "one of this mental kids" in their sport. On top of that, we're in a rural part of Scotland so there's a shortage of sporting opportunities and facilities. So, I contacted Scottish Disability Sports regional manager to see if there were sports that might be more welcoming/inclusive of Apsies.
I was astonished when she replied to say that autism doesn't fit the disability classifications of the Paralympics and Commonwealth Games, therefore sporting people with autism fall outwith the remit of Scottish Disability Sports. I find it bizarre that people with autism are regarded as able bodied when it comes to sport—the condition is known to be associated with deficiencies in motor skills, compounded by communication and social skills issues, but it's not seen as a sporting disability.
So, if Scottish Disability Sports can't help as autism isn't a sporting disability, what are we supposed to do to help our son get into a sport that's genuinely inclusive of Aspies?
I am not a lawyer, so I can't give any legal advice.
It sounds, to me, that the problem is that your son is being discriminated against before it even gets to Scottish Disability Sports.
For example, if the swimming club won't take him, because of your son's Asperger's, when his Asperger's isn't actually preventing him from swimming well, then they're discriminating against him because of an irrelevant condition, an irrelevant disability. In my opinion, it's as reasonable as excluding someone because of their ethnic background when it's obviously of no relevance to what the club's about: swimming!
Basically, the way it's sounding to me, it's not that your son needs his Asperger's to be properly accommodated as a relevant disability (like in the Paralympics), it's that he needs not to be excluded from ordinary clubs and the like on the basis of his irrelevant disability. Does that distinction make sense?
Perhaps it would be a good idea to seek proper advice about this from someone qualified to give it? I'm wondering if the Equality Act 2010 would apply to such cases as yours, but I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know. Could Citizens Advice be a good place to start?
I am not a lawyer, so I can't give any legal advice.
It sounds, to me, that the problem is that your son is being discriminated against before it even gets to Scottish Disability Sports.
For example, if the swimming club won't take him, because of your son's Asperger's, when his Asperger's isn't actually preventing him from swimming well, then they're discriminating against him because of an irrelevant condition, an irrelevant disability. In my opinion, it's as reasonable as excluding someone because of their ethnic background when it's obviously of no relevance to what the club's about: swimming!
Basically, the way it's sounding to me, it's not that your son needs his Asperger's to be properly accommodated as a relevant disability (like in the Paralympics), it's that he needs not to be excluded from ordinary clubs and the like on the basis of his irrelevant disability. Does that distinction make sense?
Perhaps it would be a good idea to seek proper advice about this from someone qualified to give it? I'm wondering if the Equality Act 2010 would apply to such cases as yours, but I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know. Could Citizens Advice be a good place to start?
