Canadian universities need to be more inclusive for Para athletes, says Paralympic Athletes' Council chair

There's a yawning chasm between committing to inclusion and acting on it.

That's the assertion of Erica Gavel, a Paralympic athlete and the new chair of the Canadian Paralympic Athletes' Council. In particular, she's concerned that true inclusion for Para athletes isn't happening at the university level in Canada.

"I feel as Canadians we really pride ourselves on being inclusive," said Gavel, who competed first as an able-bodied basketball player at the University of Saskatchewan, and after seriously damaging her knee, as a Paralympian. "But in order for a Para athlete to actually participate in a university Para sport athletic program they either need to go to the United States or they need to move overseas to the U.K."

What does inclusion at the university level look like to Gavel? It starts with something as seemingly innocuous as a post on a website. Or a welcoming note to disabled athletes on campus that details how to access some level of athletic support at least approaching that available to their able-bodied brethren.

What's missing at most universities in Canada, she says, is a true student-athlete experience for Para athletes. She says they need a professional training environment and a formal competitive framework within university conferences. And at least in some Para sports, there needs to be official sports championships.

For Gavel, a 31-year-old native of Prince Albert, Sask., it's been a rocky road of discovery. Gavel's world changed during the long weekend in August 2012 when, as a starting guard for the University of Saskatchewan women's basketball team, she moved to catch the ball off a skip pass during a two-on-two drill and tore the cartilage off the femur and tibia of her left knee.

Gavel went from being an elite recruit coming out of high school, to a spot on a university women's team, to being told she would never play elite-level sport again.

And then a glimmer of hope. Four months after the injury she was pointed toward Canada's Paralympic basketball team. She headed to the University of Alabama for a developmental camp with the national team, and while there landed a sports scholarship for Para sport basketball at the school for her fourth year of university studies. 

By 2016 she was a Paralympian playing basketball for Canada in Rio de Janeiro.

"It was the most weird, intense, exciting year of my entire life," she says, noting that her experiences on both the able-bodied and Para sides of sport have equipped her for her new role as Athletes' Council chair.

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According to Gavel, Canadian universities need to make it a priority to provide Para athletes with better access to facilities, sports science, therapy, coaching, accommodations and tutors for academic support. And she says those services need to be formalized programs based on the athletes' training schedules. 

"When I was on the [University of Saskatchewan basketball team], it was the most incredible experience of my life," Gavel said. "If I had had a disability earlier in my career I would never have had that experience." 

Universities in Canada don't have to provide training opportunities for Para athletes. According to Matthew Davies, chief operating officer for Ontario University Athletics, the OUA provides experiences and opportunities to Para athletes at OUA championships in four sports: track and field, swimming, rowing, and Nordic skiing. There are no university championships for these sports, and the number of people who compete in the events varies year over year.