Changing Attitudes

Special Olympics is humanity’s greatest classroom, where lessons of ability, acceptance and inclusion are taught on the fields of competition by our greatest teachers – the athletes.

Teaming Up Against the R-Word. Daniel Edwards of St. Benedict’s Preparatory School (left) and Special Olympics athlete Thabo Mabula (center) were teammates on the Special Olympics South Africa Unified Sports team at the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. On 31 March 2009, they teamed up again to help end the use of the R-word. Check out the campaign. 

Opening Windows of Understanding
When people see the seriousness and sense of purpose evident in each Special Olympics athletic event, a window of understanding opens. In hundreds of competitions a year around the world, people everywhere get the chance to have their eyes opened and their perspectives widened.

Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Those activities give them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship.

While sports is the focus of the movement, other opportunities to change attitudes emerge along the way. On 31 March, it was "Spread the Word to End the Word" day, the launch of a grass-roots effort driven by high school and college students in the United States to raise awareness of the impact of the thoughtless, hurtful use of the word "retard." See what's going on.

Misconceptions Frame Attitudes
Most attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities are framed by negative stereotypes and misconceptions. Yet when people see Special Olympics athletes in competition, they find their attitudes changing – not just about what those with intellectual disabilities can do, but also about what they themselves can do to help build a better world.

Part of the Special Olympics mission is educating people about the dignity and gifts of all people, not only those who have intellectual disabilities. A case in point occurred recently in Afghanistan. Eleven young athletes journeyed to the United States for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter games. When they returned home, there was an entire country waiting to rejoice with them, with government leaders at the head of the line.

Playing Together Paves the Way
Special Olympics Slovakia saw an opportunity to change attitudes when it started a Unified Sports® football (soccer) team, pairing up students from a special school and a mainstream school. Until then, students in the mainstream school ignored or were occasionally unkind to the students with intellectual disabilities. After the students played on the same team, everything changed. A teacher reported, “Now there is no teasing of special students on the street any more. An understanding developed that there are no differences between the regular and the special students.”

Special Olympics athlete Milan Palencar learned how to get along with people who are different. “What I like most about this team is that we are together — the boys from the regular school and we from the special school. We got to know each other and we became real friends.”

Familiarity Changes Minds
Special Olympics sports and youth outreach programs change attitudes and teach sensitivity and understanding of intellectual disability. This, in turn, leads to greater opportunities for communities to include them. In Slovakia and elsewhere throughout Eastern Europe, Special Olympics is creating tangible change for people with intellectual disability in schools and on playing fields.

The Youth Unified Sports project, supported by Vodafone, has involved more than 2,000 athletes in 10 countries on inclusive teams in football, athletics and aquatics. The annual Special Olympics European Football Week, sponsored by UEFA, now includes over 50,000 athletes, reaching millions of football fans throughout Europe. Within the next five years, Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia plans to expand programming to include 50,000 additional young people with and without intellectual disabilities.

It's a Worldwide Mission
Special Olympics is working in nearly 200 countries worldwide to open the minds of all people to the gifts and talents of people with intellectual disabilities. Special Olympics Athlete Leadership Programs, World Games, celebrity Global Ambassadors, public advertising campaigns and media coverage are helping to build awareness and opportunity in every corner of the globe. Young people are an essential part of this effort. Special Olympics Youth and Schools outreach is teaching tomorrow’s employers, policy makers and educators about perseverance, inclusion, courage and acceptance. 

 

  What YOU Can Do