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ofClaudia Kabel
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Darmstadt and the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, together with their sports clubs, are model regions for inclusion. In the future there should be more offers for people with disabilities through the Viias project.
Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stipulates that people with disabilities should have full participation in society. This also applies to sporting events. But in reality you have to look for inclusive offers for a long time.
In order to implement the UN Convention and to spread inclusive sports offers, the city of Darmstadt, the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg and the sports district of Darmstadt-Dieburg, which is responsible for both regional authorities, have founded the Viias alliance (diverse, innovative, inclusive sports offers). According to the district’s social affairs officer, Rosemarie Lück (SPD), a “unique alliance”.
At the same time, Darmstadt and the 23 municipalities of the district became a model region with 450,000 inhabitants, 426 sports clubs and 160,000 club members such as Ralf-Rainer Klatt, sports advisor for the city of Darmstadt and Vice President of the State Sports Association of Hesse, during a panel discussion on the first year of Viias on Monday evening said.
Various sub-projects are currently being tackled. One is an online survey of the clubs about their inclusive offers. These should be summarized in a cadastre so that those affected can not only see where there are offers, but also how they can get there and whether the locations are barrier-free. In Darmstadt, this sports facility register has already started, says the district’s disability officer, Zeljko Crncic. Other projects include an inclusive video format in which, for example, information on sports is conveyed in sign language, simple language and images. This was implemented in an inclusive advent calendar. A current project starts on June 27th. Then a digital sports and games festival will be held for the first time. It is intended to complement the decentralized Darmstadt sports and games festival that takes place in August.
When doing sports together, prejudices could be broken down and real inclusion lived, says Jürgen Dusel, Federal Government Commissioner for the Issues of People with Disabilities. Unfortunately, special needs students have less sport in the club. The problem is often not only the lack of accessibility, but also the question of whether trainers have the competence to deal with disabled people.
The deputy chairman of the Darmstadt-Dieburg sports district, Harry Distelmann, confirms that the implementation of inclusion is a “huge task” for the clubs with their voluntary work. But one does not want to close oneself to the topic. But it is important that the clubs continue to receive support even after the state funding has ended.
Information about the game festival and other Viias projects at: https://viias.de
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