COLUMN: A positive mindset when it comes to inclusion - by 15-year-old Derbyshire teen Mya Curtis

In the United Kingdom 160,000 people in live with cerebral palsy and I am one of them. To me 160,000 seems like a huge number but how many of you have heard of cerebral palsy?

If your answer is no let me explain what it is.

CP is a group of disorders that affects a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture; cerebral relates to the brain and palsy means a weakness or problem to do with muscles.

So yes, I’m a bit wobbly but I’m also a 15-year-old girl wanting to be treated like every other teenager. I love talking obsessively about Taylor Swift, enjoy horse riding, chatting with my friends about which boy I fancy and, sometimes, all people and peers can see is the wheelchair and not the determined, hard-working, sociable girl sitting in it.

People don’t know how much that affects me and my self-confidence; I often feel invisible.

School have been incredibly understanding but there is always room for improvement, and I am only too willing to advise. An example of this would be the annual sports day.

An annual event that takes place in most schools – sports day – is always tricky for me. For most, it’s a day of celebrating sporting achievements, messing around on the school field with your friends and eating ice-cream. It’s pretty much the same every year.

However, for me it’s a little different.

Normally I sit with my friends and watch. Then, I go find what the inclusive event is for the year is – the most recent event at my school was throwing bean bags into different coloured hoops, each with their own points value. As you can imagine, it’s all a little bit embarrassing.

I understand that, when planning sports day, you can never guarantee the weather and that there are lots of other things to consider, but I also want to point out that most disabled people want to be included in the collective group with everyone else; shotput, javelin and other sports can be easily achieved in a wheelchair.

All schools in the UK receive PE and sport premium funding with the government recommending that children with special educational needs and disabilities should take part in 20 minutes of daily activity. I would like to see more schools using some of this funding for those sports, as mentioned, that can be easily achieved in a wheelchair.

I do think that most schools are worried about not doing the right thing or offending the disabled person. If that is the case, JUST ASK!

I’ve lived with CP my entire life I don’t know anything different. I’m used to tweaking and changing activities so I have equal opportunities and I want other disabled students to have that positive mindset, that they can achieve anything they want just with a little bit of creativity, so here are my top tips on inclusion, whether you’re a school, business or charitable organisation.

1. Don’t treat us any differently, just because of mobility aids or ability.

2. Be inclusive at events, or just in general life make sure everyone has a voice and is heard.

3. Do not be patronising - we don’t want your pity!

4. Talk to us. We might be able to help organise accessible events.

5. To add to my last point, speak directly to the person with a disability. We can talk for ourselves.

6. Try and include everyone as a group; don’t single out disabled people.

7. Don’t assume things. Talk before you assume we can’t do something.

8. Look into accessible sports such as wheelchair basketball, boccia*, blind football, wheelchair tennis.

*Boccia - Athletes will throw, kick, or use a ramp to propel a ball onto the court aiming to get their ball as close to the jack ball which is white.