Disability categories:
Athletes compete according to their type of disability and functional
ability against other athletes with similar functions.
The disability categories are:
Amputee
Includes athletes who have at least one major joint in a limb missing, i.e. elbow, wrist, knee, ankle.
Depending on the sport, some amputees compete as wheelchair athletes.
Cerebral palsy
A disorder of movement and posture due to damage to an area, or areas, of the brain that control and
coordinate muscle tone, reflexes, posture and movement. Cerebral means brain-centred; palsy is a lack
of muscle control.
Intellectual disability
A person with an intellectual disability must have:
- Substantial limitation in present functioning characterised by
intellectual functioning (the American Association of Mental
Retardation defines this as an IQ of 70 or below on a
standardised measure of intelligence).
- Limitations in two or more of the following adaptive skill areas:
communication, self-care, home living, social skills,
community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional
academics, leisure and work.
- Acquired their condition before age 18.
Les autres
Les autres is French for 'the others'.
It is a term used to describe athletes with a range of conditions which result in locomotive
disorders — such as dwarfism — that don't fit into the traditional classification systems of the established disability groups.
Vision impaired
This refers to any group condition which interferes with 'normal' vision.
This incorporates the entire range of vision difficulties from correctable conditions through to blindness.
Wheelchair
Generally in order to be eligible to compete in this category an athlete must have at least a 10 per cent loss of function of their lower limbs. Some of the more common conditions which may result in
individuals being eligible include:
- traumatic paraplegia and quadriplegia (i.e. spinal cord injuries)
- spina bifida
- poliomyelitis
- amputees
- cerebral palsy
- and all non ambulant les autres athletes.
Classification
Within the six disability categories the athletes still need to be divided according to their differing level of impairment.
For example, vision impaired athletes are categorised into three different classes:
- B1 - totally blind athletes
- B2 - athletes with minimum remaining light perception
- B3 - athletes with some remaining light perception
Cerebral palsy athletes are divided into eight different classes.
The process determining the level of remaining functional ability to perform a sport is called classification assessment. The result of the assessment determines which disability category the athlete is eligible to compete in.
The classification systems differ from sport to sport, in accordance with the different skills required to perform the sport. For example, a below-knee amputation means something different for a swimmer as
compared to a volleyball player.
Consequently, a below-knee amputee swimmer will be in a different class to a below-knee amputee volleyball athlete!
|
