Promoting Inclusion in a Fitness Center through Non-Impaired Staff: Creating a Multi-Narrative Environment

ABSTRACT

The dominant narrative of ableism can result in persons with a physical impairment or chronic illness being othered, excluded and discriminated within fitness spaces. Fitness instructors with a physical impairment or chronic illness can challenge these disabling narratives and promote inclusion within fitness spaces, but such individuals are representative of only a small percentage of fitness instructors. Thus, it is imperative that fitness instructors without an impairment are able to promote the inclusion of persons with a physical impairment or chronic illness within these spaces. The purpose of this research was to explore how staff in a community-based fitness centre, the Lakeshore Foundation, were able to promote inclusion of persons with a physical impairment or chronic illness, despite the majority of staff being non-impaired. Utilizing narrative methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 members of staff then subjected these data to dialogical narrative analysis (DNA). We crafted a narrative typology representing the narrative environment of Lakeshore; (i) Lakeshore is a place of empowerment, (ii) Lakeshore is a community of acceptance, and (iii) Lakeshore is a social equalizer. Staff were cognizant of the importance of providing a cultural menu for members to choose from to make sense of their experiences, promoting these narratives in an immersive fashion, being facilitators and allies of the disability community, and working together towards a common goal to ensure the needs of their members were met. Through this research, we provide practical recommendation for instructors without physical impairments seeking to promote inclusion within exercise spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Narrative
• inclusion
• disablism
• fitness instructors
• fitness spaces

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The authors use North American social model language (i.e. person first language) throughout this paper to reflect that the study was conducted in North America, and the preferred terminology of Cliffside members and staff.

2. We define fitness spaces as any place where persons with impairments can improve health-related outcomes through physical activity including exercise, recreation and sport participation.

3. Pseudonym for the purposes of review.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emma V. Richardson

Emma V. Richardson is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She received her PhD from Loughborough University, UK in 2017, where she explored the journey of disabled individuals from gym client to gym instructor in her thesis entitled “Resisting Disablism in the Gym: A Narrative Exploration of the Journey from Disabled Client to Disabled Instructor. Still working within the field of disability studies, particularly focusing on inclusion within health and wellness settings, Dr. Richardson is currently part of the Exercise Neuroscience Research Lab at UAB which promotes health and wellness among persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) through exercise. She specializes in qualitative research and utilizes a broad range of data collection and analytical techniques in her work.

Robert W. Motl

Robert W. Motl is a professor of Physical Therapy at UAB. Prof Motl has systematically developed a research agenda that focuses on physical activity and its measurement, predictors, and consequences in persons with neurological diseases, particularly MS. Prof. Motl has generated a body of research on the validity of common physical activity measures in persons with MS. This has resulted in foundational research on quantifying differences in physical activity, particularly rates of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, in persons with MS. These two lines of research have provided the basis for examining the outcomes of physical activity in MS, particularly beneficial adaptations in brain structure, cognition, depression, fatigue, walking disability, and quality of life. Prof. Motl has undertaken research on social-cognitive predictors of physical activity that has informed the design of behavioral interventions for increasing physical activity in MS.