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Thursday February 16, 2023
SPORT
SPORT DERWENT TENNIS INCLUSIVITY EMILY SINCLAIR (she/her)
@EmilySinclair_
ROSS MCKENZIE IS the President and men’s Captain for Derwent Tennis. As he comes to the end of his year in committe he is passionate about ensuring the club is left with plans to become more inclusive.
In a statement introducing himself he said “I have been in the club for the last few years. As one of my last acts at the club, I want to make a major step towards increasing inclusivity at the University of York. I am personally going to start planning so that the committee next year can introduce Wheelchair Tennis sessions for disabled students” McKenzie has confirmed that he has met with YUSU representatives to discuss his plans and in-
itiate the first steps. He says that the York Sport Union President Franki Riley is meeting with the network for disabled students at York to discuss disabled sport further.
Speaking on the University’s inclusivity efforts, McKenzie says “I think that the University of York is great for promoting inclusivity and diversity but, I think the sports teams can do more to cater for those with disabilities. I haven’t seen any teams doing
this.” As part of his role as president and mens captain, McKenzie is going to introduce a specific role for promoting inclusivity and diversity. This will be brought in for next year’s committee. McKenzie urges other Univerity of York sports teams “to start thinking about following in our footsteps.” Derwent Tennis hold sessions 3:30-5pm on a Friday that have great turnouts. The hope is to encourage even more people to get involved. On January 25, 2023 York Sport Union President Franki Riley announced the launch of the Accessible Sport and Physical Activity Consultation. She said on Instagram “I managed to secure a significant fund to provide accessible sport equipment and I am so excited to be able to start
utilising this”. Riley confirms that YUSU are working collaboratively with the Disabled Students’ Officer and Network. Riley said “I passionately believe sports should be for everyone, and that no one should face barriers to their participation, however unfortunately this is not
often the reality. I want to change that!”
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OPINION: DISABILITY FRIENDLY SPORT JACOB BASSFORD (he/him) SPORT EDITOR
THE ABOVE STATEMENT from Derwent Tennis President Ross McKenzie and the announcement from York Sport Union President Franki Riley of the Accessible Sport and Physical Activity Consultation are welcome steps for increasing opportunities for disabled students to access sport at York, but it does show that there is still some way to go to make York a fully accessible place for disabled students.
There were many successes of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup hosted recently in the North last winter (having been delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic). One of the surprising and
captivating success stories of the tournament was the popularity of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, held in conjunction with the main Men’s and Women’s iterations. Broadcast widely on BBC Sport, the thrill of the wheelchair collisions and (unlike its Union counterpart) its close adherence to the rules of League made it a hit with British viewers. In light of Wheelchair Rugby League’s new-found popularity, that made me ponder the opportunities available in general to disabled students at the University of York to partake in sport. After some research and scouring over the YUSU website and social media sites, I did find a what seems to be official Facebook account called ‘University of York Disability Sport’. But it appears this account has been inac-
tive for nearly a decade, with its last post from November 2013. So, it does seem that there was a Wheelchair Basketball side at the University ten years ago, but this has been seemingly discontinued, with no information available as to why. This does leave a lot of questions for the University that do need answering. According to official University data, roughly 17 percent of the student population currently enrolled at York identify as being disabled. You can’t tell me that there won’t be enough demand for disability sports with those figures. This casts further spotlight as well on whether the university is enacting the recommendations given by Kelly Balmer, the 2021/22 YUSU Community and Wellbeing Officer, in a 22nd June 2022 report which is available for anyone to access online
using this address https://yusu.org/ news/article/news-blogs-disabled-students-report. Although the report is focused mainly on the need for disabled students to have equal access to academic provision to their abled counterparts, I argue the lack of disabled sports is a disappointing failure of the University to ensure all students have access to a quality provision of university life, both academical and non-academical and I urge the student union to take this issue up with University and the colleges urgently. And one hopes that the recent announcements by Derwent Tennis and the York Sport Union will prompt other colleges and University sports to follow suit in time for the commencement of the 2023/24 academcial year in September.