Inclusive Skating
Keighley, UK
Inclusive Skating is a Scottish based charity and project established in 2011 with the aim of gaining Paralympic status for ice sports. The main reason these sports are not yet included within the Paralympics is due to the difficulty of judging ice skating for athletes with any kind of disability, physical or intellectual, using the traditional “relative” judging system (RJS). However, with the introduction and development of the new International Judging System (IJS) by the International Skating Union (ISU), the door has been opened for a radically new way to approach the sport of ice skating for challenged athletes. The IJS, for the first time, allows athletes to be evaluated on an “absolute” mark, something which can then be realistically adjusted by an internationally agreed impairment compensation reflecting the athlete’s specific disability. This impairment compensation is based on an internationally accepted system known as the Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, edited by Rondinelli and devised by the American Medical Association, that converts impairments to a % whole person impairment (WPI). The Inclusive Skating competition system allows skaters with any form of impairment to compete fairly against each other through an impairment compensation that is added to the skating score. Our aim is to develop a regional structure to help promote inclusive skating and to set up a programme of events and competitions in the UK now and looking to expand internationally. We also intend to set up a badge scheme (along the lines of the Special Olympics badge scheme) so that all inclusive skaters have a target to achieve. The first Inclusive Skating club is being set up in Auchenharvie, Scotland to pilot a family club model that allows the impaired skater to skate in a supportive atmosphere with the whole family.
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