Who Is Focusing on The Para Athletes?

There are an estimated 60,000 kids in the United States alone that play adaptive sports on a consistent basis each year and I think the The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) skipped over this sector of accessibility.

There are three things of note regarding accessibility in sports:

1. The total number of kids
2. The innovation currently happening in the sector
3. The Paralympics' TikTok account

The total number of kids

There are 60 thousand kids that play adaptive sports in the United States every year. On the other hand, there are 60 million kids that play non-adaptive sports annually. Relative to the total number of kids, 0.1% of kids play adaptive sports. This is a huge indicator that this sector might be overlooked.

The issue here is two-fold:

1. The total community is so small that it doesn't make sesne to re-build sports to fit these communities
2. The market is too small for a private company to take a swing at capitalizing within it

Both of these issues lead me to think that there are likely innovations that can be made here as nobody else is looking at the market.

The innovation currently happening in the sector

Here's a brief story about a U of MN alumnus who is on the path to finding a solution to a major problem in adaptive sports - specifically sled hockey. Extrapolated outwards it addresses the passion required to push an initiative like this forward in an under-served community of athletes.

The Story:

There’s a University of Minnesota design student that has a really unique pathway to supporting the sled hockey community.?His name is Erik Jamison-Ekeling and he is a graduate from the U of Minnesota last spring.

He started his capstone project by trying to identify an underserved community in the hockey space. This led him to a few sled hockey games at TRIA Rink in St. Paul which opened his eyes to a pattern.

Erik noticed that people would be dragged in their sleds to the rink door and then lifted up onto the ice. This process was repeated for every single player. This is where he realized that hockey rinks weren’t built for hockey players with physical disabilities. Despite ADA being in place, getting onto the ice wasn't something that was considered in infrastructure requirements.

He took this information and built a cart-like system that enabled sled hockey players to move through the rink and get onto the ice all by themselves. It’s called “The Assist”. What a perfect name for a device that helps para athletes play the game they love more independently.

The Paralympics' TikTok account

The last section is more so an open question. The Paralympics has really owned who they are on TikTok and leaned into being self-referential in all that they do. Take a look at some of their content: Paralympics TikTok Account

What do you think about this approach?