ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to help coaches better understand the landscape of disability sport and become aware of the psychosocial and performance factors unique to athletes with disabilities (AWD). It provides a detailed description of various disability subgroups - physical, sensory, cognitive and invisible- and highlights considerations for coaching specific to each. The importance of sport and its positive benefits on physical, psychological, mental, and social well-being proves true for AWD as it does for nondisabled athletes. There are a number of theoretical models on disability that can assist coaches in learning how individuals with disabilities are perceived and treated by society in all areas of their lives including sport and physical activity. The medical model views disability as a ‘problem’ that belongs to the disabled individual. The social model draws on the idea that it is society that disables people, through designing everything to meet the needs of the majority of people who are not disabled.
