Do Written Resources Help or Hinder Equitable and Inclusive Physical Activity Promotion?

ABSTRACT

To sensitize individuals, organizations, and communities to the sociostructural barriers individuals with disabilities face, Mace et al. (1997) advanced seven principles of universal design  (as cited by the Center for Excellence in Universal Design, n.d.). Each principle provides guidance on how spaces, products, and services can be developed or adapted to encourage usability by all individuals. Researchers and practitioners in adapted physical activity (APA) have worked to further extend the application of the principles of universal design into the physical domain, which helps expand opportunities for all to fully participate within exercise, sport, and physically active recreation. A less scrutinized sociostructural barrier in APA promotion is the suitability of materials used to teach adults experiencing disability ways to adapt leisure and exercise routines  (Thomas & Cardinal, 2020a). However, on the basis of a recent meta-analysis (Thomas et al., 2018), knowledge of the degree suitability issues pervading materials used in routine APA promotion strategies or programs is limited. Further, it appears research has yet to gauge the prevalence of suitability issues in physical activity promotion from a broader universal design framework. These gaps in kinesiology knowledge represent fruitful lines of future research. In this essay, we present recommendations for future research toward addressing suitability knowledge gaps within APA promotion. Consistent with the call for leadership beyond college and university campuses to drive change as experts  (NAKHE Newsletter, 2019, p. 4), such lines of inquiry would promote the dissemination of resources that support efforts to bring about full participation in the physical domain.

KEYWORDS:

• Health equity
• health literacy
• knowledge translation
• praxis
• universal precaution

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Joonkoo Yun (Leroy T. Walker Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Kinesiology, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA) for his support of our initial undertaking to engage in scholarship that married the topics of kinesiology, suitability and universal design (for learning).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. By hand, it could take 10 minutes or less to measure reading grade level using a standard protocol to estimate reading grade level (Cardinal & Sachs, 1992; Thomas, 2019), and using computer technology it could be done within seconds if working with digital material.

2. Targeting sentence length and word complexity is a well-established recommendation for revising material content to be at or less than an eighth-grade reading level. Many toolkits list these objectives as first steps for creating “plain language” lay materials. One example toolkit is by the European Commission (2011) titled, How to Write Clearly, which is available in 23 official languages of the European Union.

3. For discussion on the ethical consideration of word choice, the reader is encouraged to review the articles by the following scholars: Watson (2019, pp. 183-185); McInnes and Haglund (2011, p. 185, paragraph 3).