Dominique Brand

I was born and grew up in a rural town 300km outside of Cape Town, South Africa and started my studies at Stellenbosch University with BSc Human Life Sciences followed by an Honours in Psychology. A keen interest in psychology and a curiosity to further explore the human motivation behind actions guided me to UCT and a Masters in social sciences focusing on research psychology.

At the end of my studies, I joined a young disability NGO formalised to address key issues of economic empowerment, social mobilisation, skills training and livelihoods. This was my first introduction to disability. Towards the end of my time at the NGO I did a postgraduate diploma in monitoring and evaluation and in 2013 co-founded a Research and M&E consultancy.

From my research experience so far, I wanted to be more involved in projects where I could more closely see the connection to how an intervention affects persons lives. In 2015 I started working at the Disability Studies Division at UCT as the project manager of a multi-site evaluation of the Healthy Communities Initiative of Special Olympics. My PhD worked focused on understanding how persons with disabilities at a grassroots level experiences participation. This sense of participation can in my view be seen as an indicator of the passive/active intent of organisations to be inclusive. Although my research focused on reviewing experiences within sporting organisations think the lessons around the intent with which inclusion is dealt with is universally applicable to all organisations.

ABSTRACT:

“Finding language to describe persons with disabilities’ experiences of participation in non-elite sport environments.”

Dominique Brand

The paper investigates the meaning persons with disabilities residing in Western Cape a province in South Africa attach to their experiences of inclusion in, or exclusion from in physical activity and non-elite sport participation. The study participants include ten persons with disabilities that identified that they are interest in sport participation and add value to being able to participate. The study confirms the pro-social and -physiological influence of sport and provides a framework of how average persons with disabilities outside the scope of elite para-sport experience participation. Based on the study findings she offers language to talk about experiences of inclusion and exclusion in sport environments for average persons with disabilities desiring to have an regular habitual routine of physical activity. She also asks critical questions of the development and sport sectors and their practices of using inclusion without taking full responsibility of addressing persistent systemic disablism that constantly leaves persons with disabilities at a disadvantage even within spaces that pride themselves on their inclusive nature.