Forging friendships: the experience of a peer-based physical activity program for students with disabilities and volunteers at a Canadian University

ABSTRACT

Historically, the ‘ivory tower’ has been guarded in its approach to educating students with disabilities. Further, these students’ physical activity experiences have been greatly neglected in the existing scholarship. Drawing on the phenomenological research tradition and affective theories – which offer unique opportunities to foreground the body and emotions in knowledge – in this study, I explored the experience and phenomena of physical activity and peer relationships in the context of a physical activity program for students with disabilities and volunteers at a Canadian university. Students with disabilities forged new friendships with their peers throughout the program and experienced the body in more pleasurable ways. Volunteers became more aware of their problematic assumptions toward disability over the course of the program and began to question the accuracy of previous disability knowledge. Peer-based physical activity appears to play a beneficial role in the lives of students with and without disabilities on campus. It is hoped that the findings advance scholarship and programs to facilitate inclusive physical activity for university students with disabilities, prompting the ivory tower to widen its doors.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• physical activity
• university
• youth
• emerging adulthood
• phenomenology
• affective theory

Acknowledgments

None

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the University of Manitoba-Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant; University of Manitoba Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Award.

Notes on contributors

Fiona Moola

Fiona Moola is a research scientist at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute. She runs the HEART lab at Holland Bloorview, University of Toronto, where she examines the impact of the arts in the lives of children with chronic conditions.