In a novel by Anthony Horowitz the private detective Atticus Pund “prides himself on understanding the inner workings of the human psyche.” He contends, “the more obvious the answer, the more difficult it can be to find.” Sometimes something is so obvious you slap your forehead in wonder why you didn’t understand this or know this previously. It even bothers you. You should’ve known.
I remember a movie of some years ago in which the good guys and bad guys were looking for a missing large amount of money which was not in the empty envelope where the cash should’ve been. Instead the treasure was in the rare postage stamps in plain sight on the envelope. The good guys and the bad guys all fondled the envelope, shaking the contents out repeatedly and were looking at the treasure without realizing it. Right in front of their faces! No one noticed until the end. The solution was right before their eyes and they never took note. More often than one would think a very simple solution or a remedy to a deep and long-standing problem remains unseen for a long period of time despite its ongoing appearance right before our eyes. Sometimes society stays purblind to the obvious and it invariably disadvantages and hurts the differently-able, the 24% of the marginalized population including the autistic community, Gary in a wheelchair and the elderly.
For many years whenever I delivered a lecture I would begin with posing a riddle. Whether at a large group or small I would ask, “Are you ready for riddle?” And invariably my listeners would lean forward. Everyone loves a riddle:
“Name the three ballplaying sports you play alongside each other, not against each other; where there is no offense or defense; and your opponent can show up tomorrow.” At once I then ask why is the riddle important. I answer that question by pointing out that playing alongside one another self-competitively, against the challenge of the course rather than against rivals, accommodates participation of full diversity and widespread multi-generational, multi-age and gender groups with or without disabilities. Show up anytime the mood strikes and the weather suits. No organizing plans required. No one to defeat. You do not have to beat others to be a winner.
Opponent based sports are by their nature discriminatory. There is no universal design inviting for full participation such that everyone could be participants in a drop-in walk-on accommodation. At golf and at bowling participants play the course regardless of whether there are others participants. They are self- competitive. Italian bocce is not. South African bowls is not. The Italian bocce players humored me. In South Africa the seasoned bowlers tolerated me out of politeness. Playing to defeat others, these underhand rolling sports are discriminatory because you play against skilled opponents and physicality matters. All the familiar conventional sports facilities communities provide including baseball, football, soccer, rugby, tennis, pickle ball and all sports with teams of offense and defense are exclusionary for the differently able. We often ask, when was the last time you saw a wheelchair would-be participant waiting for a game? Only American bowling indoors and Bankshot outdoors lineup alongside golf and mini-golf as self competitive, non-contact ball-playing participation.
The riddle I pose stumps very few for very long. Golf is submitted quickly; bowling after a while but soon enough. I then feel obliged to bring Bankshot to the attention of my audience and follow up with the less obvious question, why so few self competitive sports, the sports that are inclusive, which provided diversity only a swimming pool can match, why so few that it’s next to nothing, particularly in our shared commons where bowling cannot be played and golf cannot be drop-in walk-on available without cost for a community.
What should be obvious and as plain as day but is not apparent to entrenched recreation professionals schooled in teams and competition. There should be strong interest in providing total mix facilities based on the diversity of universal design in priority well before the segregating fast moving sports that sideline the differently able are provided for a community. First built should be sports and other recreational facilities that everyone can do. All ages. All degrees of ability and disability.
Ballplaying sports receive the most attention, budget and space. Therefore ballplaying sport where you play without opponents, alongside one another not against others, without huddling, team play, pushing and shoving and physical contact. That’s the place to start. There are not enough of these. Sport ultimately comes from Sparta. There are quite a sufficient number of warlike sports where inevitably there are winners and losers and one “beats” others at sport. But you can be a winner without defeating others.
When Gary rolls through a park in his wheelchair past the many children at play he moves right on. Sidelined and excluded, there is no ballplaying sport for him to drop in walk on and participate at with other children his own age and indeed with the rest of the community of all ages. And Larry’s two kids with different stages of autism? They too trudge through the park. They would like to stop and play some ball but not by having to take on others who are rivals and they can’t chase off the children from the different courts so they can be included. What sports are there for them that are drop-in, walk on when the mood is right without supervision or recreational professionals to play alongside others? There should be many such opportunities for all members of society in our shared common space, in the parks, in our fields of play.
Here’s a response and remedy to the riddle: when a new Park is being built or an established park is being renovated, start not by providing fast-moving, aggressive, contact recreation and sports marginalizing and side-lining so large a swathe of our neighbors. And not a skate board facility costing big bucks. Start with total mix diversity based on universal design. Investing in our commons must be for the service and benefit of all elements of the community not just the jocks and the athletes and the well-connected and those with the loudest voices – the tennis and pickle ball tribes, for example – who invariably get their way – large space few players expensive to build and maintain servicing a small segment of residents – but exclude the largest majority of our community including the differently-able and the elderly, including myself at 85 and counting.
The thinking behind the ADA was well meant but access is hardly the objective without inclusion. There is no point to ramps rolling to exclusion. Universal design is a synonym for inclusion. Alongside play that is self-competitive should precede any and all use of our shared commons.