Progress has stalled for disabled people in British society, the chief executive of ParalympicsGB has said, as he seeks to move his organisation on to a more activist footing.
Dave Clarke, who stepped into the role this year, will try to emulate the 124-medal total of Tokyo at the Paralympic Games in Paris next year. He says, however, that it would be “disingenuous” of the organisation not to use its platform to try to drive change off the field of play, too.
“I think where we have gone as a movement, on the field, is from sympathy, to empathy, to acceptance, to enjoyment, and finally consuming,” Clarke said.
“The British public are well up for consuming Paralympic sport, though I don’t think we can ever take that for granted. Our challenge is that the same thing simply hasn’t happened off the field of play.
“Whether it’s educational outcomes, employment outcomes, health outcomes, social inclusion, loneliness, inclusion in sport per se, school sport. Wherever you look we’re probably at empathy at best. We’re not further up the curve of inclusion and it would be disingenuous of us not to tackle that.”
Clarke is England’s record goalscorer in blind football (128 in 144 appearances) and participated in three Paralympic Games, including London 2012. He insists advocacy cannot be at the expense of driving high performance in para sport and says campaigners need to be “forgiving” of a lack of knowledge among the general public over the issues affecting disabled people. At the same time, however, he asks that government and business start to include the needs of an estimated 20% of the population in developing policy.
“Almost all the issues I face in life as a disabled person do not come from a positive decision to make my life hell, they come from a lack of knowledge about what would make things equal,” Clarke said. “It’s knowledge that people have not yet acquired and I think we need to be a bit more forgiving of [that].
“Our approach has to be collaborative. I don’t mean just across the disability and charity sector, the sports sector, it’s about engaging with people who have the power to change things. That’s not always a comfortable position to have to take.”
A recent decision by train companies to close station ticket offices, an issue taken up by the Paralympic legend Tanni Grey-Thompson, is just one area in which Clarke feels the needs of disabled people are being ignored, and from which even more privileged para athletes are not exempt.
“While an athlete is training at the venue, at championships, lots of issues around their disability are catered for,” Clarke says.
“The reality is that in the rest of life they aren’t. The same difficulties in accessing transport, accessing services, generally getting around; all those issues are faced by athletes too.
“You have athletes who’ve achieved world-beating levels of performance on multiple occasions who can’t go to the toilet on a train, or get on a train. Athletes who can get all the way to the end of a web process and not be able to tick the button that says ‘buy’.”
One issue of particular concern for Clarke is research from the disability campaign group Activity Alliance that found just 25% of disabled children regularly take part in school sports.
“That is a problem,” Clarke says. “It’s a problem for me as the CEO of an organisation that drives Paralympic sport in the UK because not only does it have massive related issues around physical health, mental health and wellbeing, but in terms of a pipeline of talent that’s an issue.”
Clarke points to ParalympicGB’s Every Body Moves campaign, an online resource that matches disabled users with available activities, as one action taken, but admits more must be done.
“The question we have to address over the next year is how do we best tackle that issue, and bring everyone with us. I think the Lionesses, with success on the field driving change in the approach to girls’ sport in school, they’ve shown us the way.”
With just over 12 months until Paris 2024, Clarke is bullish about the prospects of the ParalympicsGB team, albeit reluctant to talk in terms of medal targets. The advantages Britain have traditionally had through higher funding are now being matched by other nations, while advances in technology and training mean the level of competition has never been higher.
“It is likely in most scenarios that whatever got you on the podium in London 2012 wouldn’t see you anywhere near the podium in Paris 2024,” Clarke said. “I think there’s a different factor coming into play now, which is the challenge the rest of the world are posing as they go on the same journey as us. We recognise it as a wonderful thing for the movement and a terrific challenge for us and our athletes and our sports, to go out there and be challenged and [still] find ways of achieving our goals.
“The performances we see next year are going to be way beyond anything we’ve seen before but I hope the Games as a whole will be, too. I’ve got every reason to believe that they will, but it needs to be because London – with all the amazing experiences we had – it’s 12 years ago now.”
