Individualized Planning and Support
Module 4: Individualized Planning and Support Learning Objectives
- Identify strategies for individualized planning and support for inclusive sport programs.
Planning
In the videos below, learn from an athlete, parent, and coach on what they want coaches to know about working with athletes with disabilities and how to create personalized plans for an athlete. Also, learn from an expert clinician on how you can best assess each of your athlete’s abilities and needs to develop a personalized training plan.
Personalized Training Plans - Athlete, Parent, and Coach Perspectives
Personalized Training Plans - Clinical Perspective
Support
Importance of Community Partnerships
If you want to begin including athletes with disabilities into your school sport and physical activity opportunities, or you want to expand or improve the existing opportunities that you offer, but are uncertain where to begin, it is important to lean on your school community and your broader community resources. One of the most successful aspects for inclusive sports programs from our needs assessment in Ohio was the presence of strong community partnerships. For example, we recommend that coaches and schools consider building or strengthening the following community partnerships:
- Partner with the athlete with a disability and their family in line with the philosophy of "nothing about us, without us" and ensure they are your core partnership and source for information when you have questions about their disability and the best approach to ensure they are included and their needs are met.
- Work with the student's IEP (Individualized Education Plan) team and consider requesting school coaches be invited to the IEP meetings. Ask for support from members of the team such as physical, occupational, and speech therapists to write in sports-related goals into their therapy goals and intervention plans as needed.
- Collaborate with school-based physical, occupational, and speech therapists to continue your learning on working with student athletes with disabilities, coaching strategies, and how to make modifications and adaptations to physical activities and sports.
- Build relationships with local physical therapy and occupational therapy programs in Ohio. Faculty and students in these programs often do community outreach and are looking to build service-learning opportunities. This could be a fruitful partnership to increase volunteer staffing to assist with the needs of inclusive sports programs, such as helping to design the programs, developing individualized coaching and training plans for athletes with disabilities, providing support to athletes during practice and competitions, teaching school staff about disability and adaptations to sports, and helping to procure or fabricate adaptive sporting equipment.
- Partner with existing adaptive sports programs and teams to support the development of your own school program and/or to help connect school families to these existing community resources.
- Seek out and learn from athletes with disabilities and other coaches who work with athletes with disabilities.
Case Example from Athens
In school year 2024 – 2025, school coaching staff and community partners involved in inclusive and adaptive sport in Athens County participated in the online and in-person Inclusive Sports project training opportunities. After this training, several community partner participants formed a coalition in Athens to create a new inclusive sports program activity for Athens County youth. These partners included the Southeast Ohio Center for Independent Living, Athens-City County Health Department, the Athens Community Center, local adaptive physical education teachers/coaches, the Ohio University Department of Physical Therapy, and the Ohio University Patton College of Education. They co-designed an inclusive sports program that could be offered for low cost at the Athens Community Center for youth from local school districts to participate in after school.
From the design process, they leaned on the expertise of each member of the coalition to leverage local resources to plan a program. This included:
- Utilizing County Health Department funding to help organize the program and unite all the key stakeholders to advance county physical activity and wellness goals.
- Connecting inclusive and adaptive sports experts, including an adaptive physical education teacher, to help plan the inclusive sports activities and train staff volunteers in the program.
- Leveraging local University relationships to create a train-the-trainer model where coalition partners train student volunteers from physical therapy and adaptive physical education programs to staff the program for long-term sustainability.
- Partnering with local community center recreation program staff to identify the venue for the program and assist in promoting the program in the community. Partnership with the local community center allowed the new program to become a part of the center's recreation program process and obtaining the space for no cost.
- Leveraging research and evaluation expertise from multiple partners at the University and County Health Department to identify the needs and interests of local youth and families to plan future inclusive sports opportunities.
The initial pilot program was entitled “Inclusive Sports Sampler” and ran for 5 weeks (2 days per week) in October and November 2025. During this pilot program, local youth ages 8 and up could sample playing basketball, volleyball, football, and pickleball all adapted to the youth participating in the program. In this initial program 20 participants signed up where 55% identified as youth with disabilities and 45% as youth without disabilities. Based on the results of this program, the coalition will plan further tailored programing to meet the needs of the community to help youth have more opportunities for sports and physical activity participation in Athens. To learn more about this program and collaboration opportunities with the Athens City-County Creating Healthy Communities program, contact Meredith Erlewine at merlewine@athenspublichealth.org
See the growing list of inclusive and/or adaptive sports groups/organizations by region in Ohio and nationally below.
Columbus/Central Ohio Area:
- Adaptive Sports Club
- Adaptive Sports Connection
- City of Dublin Adaptive Resources
- Columbus Chill Youth Hockey Association Special Hockey
- Espy Adaptive Sports Complex
- Fishing Has No Boundaries
- HUGS Program (Gymnastics)
- Miracle League of Central Ohio (Baseball)
- Ohio Sled Hockey
- RallyCap Sports OSU Chapter
- Straub Dance Center
Cincinnati/Southwest Ohio Area:
- The Bridge Adaptive Sports & Recreation
- Cincinnati Ballet Moves
- Cincinnati Dragons Wheelchair Basketball
- Cincinnati IceBreakers Sled Hockey
- Fishing Has No Boundaries
- Joe Nuxhall Miracle League (Baseball)
- Ohio Sports Academy Adaptive Gymnastics
- Play Kettering Adaptive Recreation
- RallyCap Sports Hamilton Chapter
Athens/Southeast Ohio Area:
- Appalachian Family Center for Autism and Disabilities Resources & Education (AF-CADRE)
- Inclusive Sports Sampler
- Safe Swim for All
- SOCIL
- Unified Basketball
Cleveland/Northeast Ohio Area:
- Achievement Centers for Children Adapted Sports
- Dancing Wheels Company
- Empower Sports
- Middleburg Heights Recreation Department Adaptive Programs
- Rec2connect Therapy (Swimming)
- The Unstoppables (Baseball)
- Youth Challenge
Toledo/Northwest Ohio Area:
Statewide or Nationwide:
Module 4 Knowledge Check
- What community partners should coaches lean on for developing inclusive sports programs? (Select all that apply)
- Athlete with a disability and their family
- The student’s IEP team
- PTs, OTs, and SLPs
- Local Adaptive Sports Programs
- What community partners should coaches lean on for developing inclusive sports programs? (Select all that apply)
- Athlete with a disability and their family
- The student’s IEP team
- PTs, OTs, and SLPs
- Local Adaptive Sports Programs