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November 2023 - Sport, Leisure and Tourism

1 in 5 disabled sports supporters say that inaccessible public transport has been a barrier to them attending live sport: A survey has found that according to 20% of disabled sports fans, inaccessible public transport has been a barrier to them attending live sport. This is an increase on last year's findings (17.5%) and even more on 2021's findings (16%). 

The survey, commissioned by disabled-led charity Level Playing Field (LPF), polled 1,800 disabled fans, also uncovered that there has been an increase in 'disability abuse' at events, with 7% of respondents citing it as a barrier to them attending live sport, up from 5.5% in 2021 and 6.5% last year.

Other barriers highlighted included a 'lack of support from club staff', with the proportion of those citing it as a barrier rising from 7% in 2021, to 10% in 2022, and 11% in the latest research. 

The research also revealed that almost a third of respondents (31%) had been impacted by the use of flares, smoke bombs and other pyrotechnics at games. When asked to rate the impact of those experience on a scale of one to 10, more than 120 fans polled scored it as a '10' indicating the most severe impact on them possible. 

More than half the respondents polled (54%) shared that in order to attend live sporting events they had incurred additional disability-related costs, particularly in areas including travel and parking, or in some cases, paying for a personal assistant or companion to accompany them to events. 

Looking at areas of improvement since last year's survey, the research highlighted that physical access preventing disabled fans from attending games had fallen, from 36.5% in 2022 to 29.5% in the 2023 results. 

In terms of the breakdown of games attended by fans, nine in 10 respondents said their experiences related to football games in the top 4 English football leagues, while rugby league (7.4%), women's football (0.9%), cricket (0.6%) and rugby union (0.5%) were also cited.

LPF chair Tony Taylor, said of the findings: 

"Inaccessible public transport and disability abuse have both seen year-on-year increases in the percentage of disabled fans for whom they act as a barrier when attending live sport.

“These are key areas of work for Level Playing Field to focus on, and the results provide us with unquestionable evidence to utilise in discussions with other stakeholders, in order to bring about meaningful action.”

 

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