What is Adaptive Movement?

I recently worked on a project that allowed me to reflect on an experience that many of us who are blind or partially sighted often experience. Growing up, any of the physical activities we were expected to take part in for our physical education classes weren’t accessible, and unfortunately, the common solution is to allow us to opt out of not taking part in certain units throughout the year, or spend our time on exercise machines alone to get in our daily physical activity.

I always found the solutions to be very frustrating because I loved sports growing up and always wanted to play alongside my fellow classmates; however, concerns for safety and adequate participation often trumped my individual interests. When we were tasked with the assignment to explore an area of health education and create a lesson plan for a fictional K-12 class, I chose to take on the concept of how movement could be taught in a way that is restriction-free and accessible to all, thus entering the idea of adaptive movement. As I continued to research this topic, I started thinking about how movement is never a consistent aspect of our lives, as no matter who we are, at one point or another, we need to adjust for factors such as aging, injury, disability, or simply not feeling well at any given time.

One of the biggest things that allowed me to look at movement in a different way lies in an indigenous ideology that our movement is not strictly a human thing; when we interact with the environment around us, we can see how everything from animals to objects takes part in their own form of movement. When we allow ourselves to restructure the concept of movement away from traditional exercise, we can see how any movement is good movement, and incorporating elements of body awareness, inclusivity, and confidence, any movement-based practice can be accessible to everyone. When we combine this philosophy with activities such as adaptive sports, creative movement and expression like dance, and incorporate play and exploration back into educational practices, we can create a more well-rounded physical education program that allows everyone with diverse abilities to participate equally.

Although I thoroughly enjoy taking part in certain traditional exercises, taking the time to learn about this new perspective on movement has opened up a lot more possibilities on ways for me to stay active currently, and hopefully helps to build a solid foundation that I can continue throughout my life.

by Ishita