The Paralympic legacy: what will it do for people with intellectual disabilities?

Aim:
The aim of this paper is to explore the potential legacies of the forthcoming Paralympics in terms of two dimensions for people with intellectual disabilities; one being sports involvement and the other being changing attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities.

Method:
Original data about the spread and increase of involvement of elite sports people with intellectual disabilities across the world will be presented. In addition, preliminary data will be presented from some experimental research looking at the impact of media representations of elite athletes with intellectual disabilities on implicit attitude change of observers without intellectual disabilities.

Results:
This data will show that elite sports involvement by athletes with intellectual disabilities is increasing internationally and that the media exposure that the Paralympics brings with it provides a potentially significant vehicle for social attitude change.

Conclusion:
The Paralympics presents a unique and under-researched mass, international set of activities which potentially opens a range of opportunities to explore our understanding, attitudes toward and reactions to people with intellectual disabilities.