The Competencies of Fitness Professionals: View from the Disability Community

Research has found that one of the many barriers to physical activity for people with disabilities is the knowledge of fitness professionals. It has been acknowledged that people with disabilities often feel that fitness professionals are not capable of assisting them for a variety of reasons. Through a mixed methods approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative elements, this pilot study attempts to further understand what competencies in fitness professionals are most important to people with disabilities. Furthermore, it surveys across type of disability. Responses from people with disabilities are compared to what fitness professionals believe is important to people with disabilities to see if there is a dissimilar conclusion. Though statistically significant results were largely absent from the data, a larger sample size may prove to show statistically significant differences. More research should be done in this field to further validate findings.