By Disability Sports Australia Media Team
May marked a significant milestone for Disability Sports Australia.
Following the support of members at our Extraordinary General Meeting, we adopted a new Constitution that modernises our governance and better reflects our history, membership and role.
For more than 65 years, Disability Sports Australia and our members have helped shape disability sport in Australia.
The new Constitution reflects both that history and the broad range of organisations and individuals that make up our membership today, while recognising the contemporary reality that participation happens across mainstream sport, disability specific sport or both.
Our predecessors coordinated Australia’s early Paralympic teams, established national championships, developed participation and competition systems, were founding members of the Australian Paralympic Federation, now Paralympics Australia, and played a significant role in shaping disability sport in Australia across wheelchair sport, amputee and locomotor disability sport, and cerebral palsy sport.
Over recent months, we have worked to better align our history, governance and role within the contemporary sport system, including updates to our organisational history and recognition within Australian sport.
The Constitution provides a strong foundation for the next chapter of Disability Sports Australia.
This month also gave us a chance to reflect on the first year of our Strategic Plan 2025–2028.
Over the past twelve months, we have continued to strengthen our role as a national organisation focused on improving opportunities for people with disability to take part, building capability across sport, increasing visibility and representation and improving how sport works.
With the support of the Australian Sports Commission, we launched the Changing Lives Through Sport campaign, reaching more than 1.19 million Australians through media, digital storytelling and community engagement.
We opened Australia’s first purpose built indoor disability sport facility, the Blacktown Disability Sports Centre, and expanded Abilities Unleashed nationally.
During 2025–26, Disability Sports Australia, together with our event delivery and sporting partners, delivered more than 50 Abilities Unleashed events across Australia, connecting thousands of people with disability and their families with local sport opportunities.
This momentum has continued into 2026, with more than 866 participants connected with local sport opportunities through 10 Abilities Unleashed events delivered so far this year.
Across this term, Disability Sports Australia, our event delivery partners and sporting partners are collaborating to deliver 18 events nationally, with eight still to come.
Another major milestone was the release of the Disability Sports Australia and Members Play Well Participation Plan 2026–2029.
Developed alongside our members and aligned with the Australian Sports Commission’s Play Well Strategy, the plan sets a shared national framework for increasing participation opportunities for people with disability and strengthening sport nationally.
Earlier this month, we joined participation leaders from across Australia at the Australian Sports Commission’s Participation Leaders Conference.
The conversations reinforced something we see every day in our work: local opportunities, capable sporting environments and connected systems remain critical to increasing participation for people with disability.
The conference also reinforced the importance of participation and grassroots sport. The value of sport extends beyond physical activity. Sport creates connection, belonging and visibility, and strengthens social cohesion within communities. These outcomes remain central to our work.
Across both Bupa Try Para Sport and Abilities Unleashed, we continue to see the same pattern emerge: when people can find local opportunities, receive the right information and connect with welcoming sporting environments, participation increases.
The 2026 Bupa Try Para Sport series concluded this month.
Delivered in partnership with Paralympics Australia and presented by Bupa, the series travelled across every state and territory, supporting 212 participants to explore para sport and connect with coaches, clubs and sporting organisations.
The national reach of the program helps ensure more people with disability have the opportunity to experience para sport for the first time.
We are also expanding our work in education settings.
Following the inclusion of Abilities Unleashed within Sporting Schools, we are now piloting new school based programs designed to help more children with disability connect with sport and physical activity.
This month, Disability Sports Australia partnered with the Australian Sports Commission to deliver a focus group informing the development of national Coaching and Officiating Action Plans.
Coaches and officials with disability and people with lived experience from across our community took part, sharing their experiences directly to help shape practical actions for coaching and officiating across Australian sport.
Increasing participation requires sustained investment in the people, partnerships and infrastructure that make participation possible.
We also recognise the pressures many Australians are facing through ongoing cost of living challenges, which makes every contribution to this work matter more.
Fundraising and philanthropy remain an important part of sustaining and extending this work.
Thank you to our members, participants, volunteers, donors, supporters and partners for the role you continue to play.
We are particularly grateful for the ongoing support and collaboration of the Australian Sports Commission, Paralympics Australia, Bupa, the Northern Territory Government, our member organisations, sporting partners and the many community organisations helping create access to sport across Australia.
As we move into the second year of our Strategic Plan, we remain focused on building the capability of sport nationally so more people with disability can take part in the way they choose.
Ayden Shaw
Chief Executive Officer
Disability Sports Australia
ENDS
About Disability Sports Australia:
Disability Sports Australia (DSA) is a national non-profit, registered charity, and National Sporting Organisation for people with disability, dedicated to increasing participation in grassroots sport.
For more than 65 years, DSA and its predecessor organisations have helped shape disability sport across Australia. Today DSA works with its members, sporting organisations, governments, clubs and communities to increase participation opportunities for people with disability and strengthen how sport is delivered nationally.
