Disability - Diversity and Belonging
We approach our activities via the ‘social model of disability'. This includes an underlying belief that social barriers such as the environment, attitudes and organisations are what prevent people from participating, not their impairment. For example, with the right consideration a Deaf participant is able to fully access our club environment via trained volunteers, supportive teammates and the introduction of a light system to ensure they recognise when officials/ coaches use their whistles.
Doing so enables us to identify barriers to our sport and provides us with the control and responsibility to remove them.
In 2014 Activity Alliance (formerly the English Federation of Disability Sport) released their ‘Talk to Me’ report. This provided 10 core principles to help deliverers ensure that their activities were inclusive to disabled people. These can be applied to all activities including playing and volunteering.
Developed in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust and a number of lead inclusion schools, Inclusive Bee Netball formats have been developed for students from KS1-3. For pupils with SEND, these formats, and associated Inclusive Bee Netball Festivals, provide children and young people with the opportunity to participate in netball. Introducing games and activities in a fun and engaging, adaptable first step into netball, there are fewer strict or 'complicated' rules.
Whilst we encourage this broad view of inclusivity, we have included impairment and role-specific resources below that will enable you to effectively identify barriers and support disabled people to access netball.
1 in 3 adults in the UK are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus. When considering those aged 55+ this raises to 1 in 2 and for those aged 70+, 2 in 3 (Royal National Institute for Deaf People).
As part our Dedicated to Difference commitments, England Netball will be looking at how we can best support deaf players and those with hearing loss. The resources below can also be used to support deaf players whilst this work is ongoing.
Basic BSL for Netball - The National Deaf Children’s Society have created these videos to support clubs and volunteers with basic signs that relate to netball.
Deaf People’s Inclusion in Sport - This free course has been created by Accelerate Sport and UK Deaf Sport. It covers a range of useful content around understanding deafness and engaging with deaf people.
The understanding and focus around neurodiversity is constantly evolving and it has become a core focus for many.
You can find out more by clicking on the image on the right.
Aside from participating we know that disabled people also want to volunteer and have the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers to do so. However, this is currently not the case. For example, Activity Alliance found that 9% of disabled people agree they have the opportunity to become a coach or take on a role in delivering sport or physical activity (compared to 24% of non disabled people).
It is therefore key that we uses resources like the one below to consider how we engage with disabled volunteers.
Click on the roadmap above to find a range of resources to map out your volunteer journey, and ensure it is inclusive and accessible for everyone.
The resources feature key learnings and insight from Activity Alliance's Get Out Get Active (GOGA) programme on supporting disabled volunteers and how to create an inclusive volunteering programme.
Launched in 2017, ParaNetball is a format of the game that focuses on the inclusion of disabled people within our clubs. This was coupled by an annual, national championship that brought together teams from around the country. The format is currently under review as we continue to learn and ensure that we provide the best possible playing and volunteering opportunities for disabled people. More information will be shared in 2026, following the completion of this review.
England Netball aims to ensure anyone engaging with learning and development is supported to do so, to the full extent of our legal obligations and organisational commitments. To assist disabled people with this we take our anticipatory duty seriously continuously work to make our qualifications and courses accessible to all.
Similarly, we recognise that disabled learners may wish to make a reasonable adjustment request. To make this as simple as possible we have created a policy covering both reasonable adjustments and extenuating circumstances. Please contact qualifications@englandnetball.co.uk who will be able to provide this.
Supporting Disabled Teenage Girls to be Active
Disabled teenage girls’ enjoyment of and positive attitudes towards sport continue to be lower than their non-disabled counterparts, but, in contrast, we know that 67% of those that responded to Women in Sport’s survey want to be more active.
Supporting Deaf Girls to Stay Active
Deaf teenage girls are at increased risk of dropping out of sport and face additional barriers to participation than hearing girls.
Women in Sport’s report in partnership with UK Deaf Sport, looks at the difficulties that some teenage girls face to taking part in sport.