In October, we celebrated National Disability Employment Month. We examined how far we have come as an industry and how far we still must go to ensure equal access for people with a disability in our field, particularly in our hiring practices. Inclusion in any space is not a one-time effort. It should be embedded in the core values, policies and culture of an organization for true success. Here are some steps you can take as an organization to ensure your employment opportunities are accessible and inclusive to disabled people. 

Step 1:

Be accessible. That may sound simple, but in reality, accessibility is all encompassing. It includes everything from the built environment to technology and services. In addition, accessibility has specific standards that all business and organizations must adhere to. Do your research on accessibility to ensure you are ADA compliant for both your staff and clients. You can even take access and inclusion one step further by meeting Universal Design Standards. If you are not sure where to begin, there are many resources available, including the ADA checklist, AIMFREE or the CHII that can provide an assessment. There are also tools that address website accessibility like WebAIM. While it’s important to receive staff feedback about accessibility, don’t rely on staff with disabilities to do your ADA work. There are accessibility and inclusion specialists you can work with to guide you along the way. Providing an accessible environment lets applicants know you welcome a diverse workforce and are willing to make an accommodation they may require. 

Step 2:

Create a culture of inclusion. Make sure your diversity, equity and inclusion committees and initiatives actively include people with disability. Create awareness across your organization on your inclusion standards, and provide trainings on disability, allyship, advocacy, ableism and more. Make inclusion part of your core values and create policies around prioritizing the hiring of individuals with a disability as well as other inclusive practices. 

Step 3:

Ensure your marketing and recruitment efforts are accessible and inclusive. People with disabilities are vastly underrepresented in all aspects of life. Take inventory of your recruitment and marketing materials. Does the imagery and language include those with a disability? Are your print and digital materials accessible to people who use assistive technology or have low vision? If not, disabled people may not feel welcome or included, and you may miss out on highly qualified candidates. As a best practice, ensure one in four of your marketing materials or social media posts have disability-inclusive messaging or representation, reflecting the one in four Americans who have a disability. Check out these helpful tips from the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) on more inclusive social marketing.  

Step 4:

Establish inclusive hiring practices. This might be the most important component of your plan to recruit individuals with a disability in your workplace. Review your hiring process and make sure all aspects are inclusive. This includes making sure your application is accessible, including the platform or website it is located on, and that the language in the job description does not exclude people with certain types of disabilities. Also, job interviews should be conducted in the least restrictive environment. Know the guidelines around inclusive interviews and practice them. Interviews are nerve racking enough. You don’t want to increase that anxiety by conducting it in a non-inclusive space. Check out Inclusively’s suggestions on what this includes.   

Step 5:

Partner with the disability community. The disability community has a wealth of knowledge, expertise and resources available. Partnering with disabled people helps you understand the real-life needs and barriers people with disabilities face working in our field or your facility. All disabilities are unique, and there is no one step that can be done to ensure access and inclusion. By partnering with the disability community, you can get a pulse on what unique characteristics exist in your community and how you can equip, hire or serve individuals with a disability in your fitness or wellness facility. They may also be able to provide you with qualified candidates for your organization.  

Just like physical fitness, inclusion is a process. A one-time workout or heavy lift doesn’t make you fit. It might make you feel better in the moment, but it does not create long-term results. The same is true of inclusion. Simply adding a ramp or checking an accessibility box will do little to change the overall culture of your organization. So, commit to learning and practicing inclusion bit by bit each day. It will lead to a vibrant organization with a workforce that feels valued and supported. 

Related Content: 
Blog | Disability, Employment and Progress in the Fitness Space
Certification | Become an ACSM/NCHPAD Certified Inclusive Fitness Trainer
Book | ACSM's Exercise Management for Persons With Chronic Diseases and Disabilities

Kelly Bonner is the Director of Training and Operations at Lakeshore Foundation for the National Center on Health Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD). In her work with NCHPAD, she has conducted numerous trainings on Disability Education to organizations like the World Games, Encompass Health, and state health departments. She has also authored publications and blogs for organizations such as ACSM, CDC and NRPA. Mrs. Bonner manages NCHPAD’s training and education components including their on-line E-learning site. For the past 10 years Mrs. Bonner has overseen and delivered the trainings for the Certified Inclusive Fitness Trainer through ACSM. Mrs. Bonner is a certified fitness specialist and has worked at Lakeshore Foundation, an Olympic and Paralympic training center, working with disabled individuals across the lifespan in the fitness center as well as coaching adapted track and field.

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Q: How are we conceptualizing “readiness” in this context?

Readiness can have a variety of meanings, but in the context of athletic readiness, it’s the return to psychophysiological homeostasis that enables an athlete to train or compete at a set level. However, that “set level” may be defined differently depending on the time of the year: is it off-season where you’re more willing to accept higher levels of fatigue, or is it a competitive season where elite performance is the goal? Context is very important here.

Q: Outside of a team setting, what tools do you recommend individual athletes use beyond perceptual measures? For example, are there specific HRR products that are effective?

This is highly dependent on the sport, but across a variety of individual sports, heart rate indices, including exercise heart rate and heart rate recovery, are validated methods to monitor internal load. The importance in identifying a validated product, whether worn on the wrist or chest, is extremely important. As far as monitoring external load, GPS and power-based devices for capturing external load metrics are effective monitoring tools.

Q: The number of wellness roles has significantly increased over the years, including in the athletic world. As you mentioned, the internal load is critical to understanding overall load. My question is whether you see a wellness role to be the future of athletics where they consider the multiple variables that can impact performance.

Absolutely. We’re already starting to see an uptick in sport psychologist roles in elite sport, and I believe that will only continue to grow as athlete health and wellness grows beyond the physical attributes and capabilities.

Q: How often do you measure internal load? Is there a particular tool you use to measure this?

This depends on the sport, athlete and organization. The frequency at which you measure is dependent on how you plan to apply this information in the athletic setting and the ability for you to capture that information. Internal load measures such as sRPE may be easier to capture on a daily basis rather than biomarkers such as testosterone or cortisol, given the burden on the athlete and the cost of analyses. Daily monitoring of exercise heart rate can be a great tool at measuring daily internal load responses; however, there are a number of other useful tools.

Q: Which monitoring tools would you suggest for power-oriented athletes?

Monitoring external load through standard rep schematics or bar speed during lifting sessions while utilizing force output during the recovery period can be a useful tool to monitor the internal load response to specific training blocks, and subjective assessments can be used for daily load monitoring.

Q: What is your approach when there is a discrepancy between internal and external loading?

First, it’s understanding if the abnormal internal load response is correct, such as identifying any potential errors in data acquisition and analysis. Then it’s identifying if that response would be expected due to a potential uptick in training volume (i.e., external load). If there is still a discrepancy, this gives the coach/practitioner the opportunity to flag this to the athlete and understand if there are any external issues that may be a reason for this response, such as poor sleep, poor diet/hydration, or external stressors (think college students going through finals). Then it’s up to the coach and staff to identify the best course of action, whether that’s a decrease in prescribed training load or other behavior modifications such as diet interventions.

Q: What is your opinion on CPK as a biomarker for internal load monitoring?

There are a variety of biomarkers that may be useful in monitoring internal load in athletes. Testosterone and cortisol have an extensive literature base to understand muscle status and the internal load response to training stimuli, including during athletic seasons. CK is a useful marker for monitoring muscle damage as well. I suggest looking at the brief review published by Lee et al. (2017) (PMID: 28737585).

Q: Regarding perceptual assessments, how do you approach an athlete with poor results? What changes will you do according to the results? How long prior to training do they fill out the form?  

This depends on the perceptual assessment. Wellness questionnaires should be administered upon waking, preferably prior to any daily stressors such as training. sRPE should be administered following training. It’s always easiest to assess immediately after as the athlete is on-site and fresh; however, this scale can be validly utilized up to 24 hours post training. It’s imperative to utilize this data in the context of the entire athlete-monitoring program, including understanding their external load, to determine whether any abnormal results are prescriptive in nature (i.e., high training demands for adaptations) or whether an abnormal result is due to poor training status which requires further intervention.

Q: If we only have heart rate monitoring, recording, to measure “readiness” what are the red flags of HR response during exercise sessions (max and recovery time) and daily/morning resting HR?

This is highly specific to the individual as max heart rate and heart rate recovery times vary athlete to athlete. It’s important to have a baseline understanding of the athlete’s typical physiological response to training to better interpret any internal load responses to training.

Q: Universities, such as the University of Washington athletics department, have a wellness coordinator on staff who looks out for their players’ well-being. Perhaps that is the answer to relieving that responsibility on other practitioners, such as S&C, R.D., and athletic trainers?

I think this is fantastic, and the more experts practitioners can rely on also helps build a level of trust with the athlete that they are doing what is best for them.