June 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 42

rate equivalent to our senior rates.
The eligibility criteria was modeled
after the U.S. Forest Service access
pass and offers the benefits of going
to multiple centers without the requirement of proving one's disability
at each location. Since the pass was
introduced, it has been very successful, resulting in SLCPR's adaptive
department needing to conduct a
close examination of the programs,
equipment and services offered to
the Plus One Pass members.
New Disability-Specific
Certifications
In the past, SLCPR and many organizations like it relied on mentor/
mentee programs provided by seasoned adaptive professionals, recreation therapists, exercise sports science practitioners or adaptive P.E.

Parks & Recreation

Parks and recreation
departments are
a critical part of
encouraging healthy
lifestyle choices.
professionals. We discovered with
the increased need for programs
aimed at people with disabilities,
we needed to hire more specialized
staff. The challenging path to becoming a proficient instructor in the
wide variety of programs park and
recreation departments offer makes
it extremely difficult to initiate programming in rural areas or states
like Utah that have limited history
in providing such services and few
personnel with the necessary skills.
While searching for solutions, I have
noticed there are many new resources and certifications being developed
to ensure programmers can attain
the basic knowledge to provide safe
and healthy sport, fitness and healthy
lifestyle opportunities for individuals with disabilities. One of the most
exciting new publications to assist
programmers is U.S. Paralympics'
" Sport Coaching Guide. "
My biggest fear has been that instead of creating opportunities for
individuals to achieve their goals,
I or my staff may unintentionally
cause harm to a participant. Safely
facilitating a fitness class for disabled people can be complicated due
to the diversity of physical challenges that may be associated with a particular disability. SLCPR employs
several certified instructors to work
with the able-bodied population, so
I was pleased to discover the certi-

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fication opportunities developed
by the American College of Sports
Medicine and National Center on
Health, Physical Activity and Disability, including the Certified Inclusive Fitness Instructor program.
Improving Quality of Life
Hopefully, learning more about
available certification and fitness
training opportunities aimed at individuals with disabilities will inspire
your agency to do its part to encourage visitors of all ability levels to engage in more physical activity. Park
and recreation departments are a
critical part of encouraging healthy
lifestyle choices for all members of
the community.
In the past, it seemed the most
common obstacles to access for individuals with disabilities involved architectural concerns, such as whether
someone could easily enter a facility's buildings or traverse its open
spaces. Now the focus is on how to
create purposeful, quality services,
equivalent variety of opportunities
and program-specific trained staff
to welcome individuals with disabilities. I am consistently on the lookout
for new resources and certifications
- they will continue to help evolve
our programming for individuals
with disabilities. Even playgrounds
are being programmed by organizations like Shane's Inspiration - the
information is accessible online for
free, so program away!
Detailed references for this article can be found at www.parks
andrecreation.org/2014/June/
Promoting-Healthy-Lifestyle-Choic
es-for-Citizens-with-Disabilities.
Jeff Burley, M.S., CTRS, is the Adaptive
Recreation Program Manager at Salt Lake
County Parks and Recreation (jburley@
slco.org).

June 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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