By Disability Sports Australia Media Team
One year ago, Disability Sports Australia (DSA) launched its 2025–2028 Strategic Plan.
The strategy set a clear direction for the organisation’s work across grassroots participation, capability building and improving how sport works for people with disability.
Over the past twelve months, Disability Sports Australia launched Australia’s first national grassroots disability sport storytelling campaign, secured admission of Abilities Unleashed into Sporting Schools, and opened Australia’s first purpose-built indoor disability sport facility.
Key milestones over the past year included:
• Launching Changing Lives Through Sport, Australia’s first national grassroots disability sport storytelling campaign, reaching more than 1.19 million people nationally.
• Securing admission of Abilities Unleashed into Sporting Schools, removing a direct financial barrier for schools and opening the program to a substantially larger national audience.
• Chairing a session on sport and disability inclusion at the United Nations Office in Vienna during the Zero Project Conference.
• Delivering 50 Abilities Unleashed events across Australia, with 3,309 people with disability participating and 181 sporting organisations engaged.
• Delivering the Bupa Try Para Sport series with Paralympics Australia across every state and territory, connecting 212 participants to para sport opportunities nationally.
• Launching Building Inclusive Sport Clubs in partnership with Victoria University and the Australian Sports Commission.
• Collaborating with Active Education Australia, Paralympics Australia and the Australian Sports Commission on Wheelchair Sport Skills.
• Partnering with Blacktown City Council and the NSW Government Office of Sport to develop and open the Blacktown Disability Sports Centre in Western Sydney, Australia’s first purpose-built indoor disability sport facility.
• Submitting formal recommendations to the national review of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, calling for reforms to Section 28 to align Australian sport with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• Launching the Disability Sports Australia and Members Play Well Participation Plan 2026–2029.
Disability Sports Australia CEO Ayden Shaw said the past year demonstrated the breadth of work required to strengthen participation across a complex and changing environment.
“As Australia moves toward Brisbane 2032, there is a growing opportunity to recognise grassroots participation as a genuine legacy outcome.
Over the past 12 months, Disability Sports Australia’s work has demonstrated the importance of local opportunities, capable sporting environments and accessible experiences in shaping whether people with disability can participate in sport in their community.”
This work has been delivered in partnership with the Australian Sports Commission, Bupa Australia, the Northern Territory Government and delivery partners across Australia.
Despite progress, people with disability remain significantly less likely to participate in sport than other Australians.
Disability Sports Australia’s focus remains on strengthening grassroots participation opportunities, building capability across sport, and improving how people with disability access and connect with sport across Australia.
ENDS
Media contact:
Ayden Shaw
CEO
Disability Sports Australia
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.
