I. Metshin “We all live in the same society, equal opportunities should be created for everyone”

(KZN.RU, October 29, Ksenia Shvetsova). For the development of adaptive sports and involving people with disabilities to active life in Kazan, it is planned to establish a Coordination Council, as well as to develop a city program with specific proposals. This decision was made today in the course of a comprehensive discussion on the development of adaptive sports at the meeting of the XXIX session of the Kazan City Duma, which took place in the City Hall. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of the city, ordered to develop a roadmap for further work in this direction and to involve coaches, teachers, and other specialists in its discussion.

According to the Pension Fund of the RT, as of December 31, 2017, 30% of people with disabilities in the RT live in Kazan. There are 87622 people with disabilities in the city, which is 7.1% of the population, 6% of them are children.

Leila Fazleeva, the deputy prime minister of the RT, told about the main results and gaps in the work on the development of adaptive sports. According to her, 14.4% of people with disabilities are engaged in a regular physical exercise in the republic today, 11% in Kazan. The work is going on in two main areas: mass physical culture and sports, as well as sports of the highest achievements. According to L. Fazleeva, the republic has good performance in sports of the highest achievements and, in particular, in the Paralympic Games. “We take the second place in Russia in work with the disabled, only behind the Krasnodar Territory”. During this year, 42 championships and competitions were held in the republic, in which disabled people took part.

But at the same time, the republic and its capital still have actual problems in the mass adaptive sports. According to the speaker, today a proposal is being formed at the republic level for a three-level provision of medical and biological support for adaptive physical education classes. In September and October of this year, retraining of specialists in this field was carried out for this purpose. They will have skills in adaptive sports and will be able to supervise classes. L. Fazleeva added that an expert group is currently being formed in the Cabinet of Ministers to analyze the program of physical education technology for young citizens of the republic. Experts from various ministries and departments are invited to work. The group will identify effective methods of raising children with disabilities, taking into account age characteristics.

The deputy prime minister added that there is a need to increase the number of special medical groups in the republic. “Special Medical Groups imply a special teacher who has the skill to work with this category of children, and a special kind of program to fit the child into the space of a physical education lesson”, she explained.

The most effective work on adaptive sports is carried out in institutions of the stationary type and in organizations for children with disabilities. L. Fazleeva urged the authorities and non-profit associations to work more actively with them.

“Thank you for your support and attention to this important area. I hope that the activities of all the ministries will be coordinated under your leadership”, said Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan. “We all live in the same society, the same city, the same living space. But there are people with disabilities among us. The city created excellent opportunities for sports, public and green spaces. All this must be accessible to everyone. People with disabilities already have more difficulties in sports. Therefore, our common task is to create comfortable conditions for them and equal opportunities to enjoy public goods and urban infrastructure”.

Svetlana Vostrikova, the chairperson of the Committee for Physical Culture and Sport, told how to attract more people with disabilities to sports. The work on the maximum adaptation of persons with disabilities to independent living in Kazan is carried out within the framework of the target program “Available Environment”.

55 organizations of the city are engaged in physical culture and health work with persons with limited health abilities: 16 institutions in the field of physical culture and sports, 9 general education, and 6 pre-school institutions, 20 commercial and non-commercial, public organizations, 5 rehabilitation centers for social protection.

In total, 152 children with disabilities and 883 disabled people study at the general educational institutions of the city. 558 people study at home individually. According to the speaker, classes in adaptive physical education with students of a special recreational group are held in schools in the city. Classes are held at a free-from-lessons time for 3 hours per month.

Regular physical education classes are held in 6 kindergartens for children with visual impairment, moderate intellectual disability, and children with severe speech disorders.

However, this is not enough to cover all people with disabilities in sports, noted S. Vostrikova. She marked that often the problem is not the lack of conditions, but shortcomings in the organization of the classes. For example, sometimes coaches find it difficult to form groups, because this category of citizens falls under the law on non-disclosure of personal data. Thus, it is necessary to provide in the staffing table of educational institutions a sufficient number of specialists in adaptive physical education.

According to the speaker, a social taxi will be of great help in the development of adaptive sports to take people with disabilities to the place of training. She also urged to maximally inform citizens about activities for the disabled, sections, clubs, and services for residents with disabilities. In addition, S. Vostrikova proposed to develop an algorithm for interdepartmental interaction, which will allow people with disabilities to play sports for free, to organize places for adaptive physical education classes in teen clubs.

Rafael Shavaliev, the chairman of the Permanent Commission on the Protection of Public Health and the Environment, also proposed some measures for the development of adaptive sports. In particular, he urged to pay attention to the development of infrastructure for the accessibility of people with limited mobility and to develop a city program for the development of adaptive sports.

Nadezhda Titova, the president of the public organization “Zabota”, suggested approving the award “Best Trainer of the Year” following the example of the award “Teacher of the Year”, and also called for promoting the work of non-profit organizations.

The Mayor of Kazan agreed that the city needs a special program in order to attract as many people with disabilities as possible to go in for sports. He noted that the city has a rich heritage from the Universiade, the FINA World Championships, World Cup, and many other sports events. The entire base allows to increase the number of citizens involved in physical exercise annually; today their number exceeded 42% of the population.

“But, unfortunately, there is no such coverage among the disabled. Statistics show that Kazan is not yet among the leaders in these indicators. We need to jointly figure out the reason, and work in this direction”, said I. Metshin. He added that basically, the reasons concluded to the two aspects. First, it is necessary to pre-modernize the material base in all municipal institutions, and second, to eliminate interdepartmental disunity at all levels of government. “If the first task requires financial resources, considerable investments, then the decision of the second depends only on our organization. It is necessary for everyone to do what the law requires”, marked the Mayor.

The Mayor supported the idea of creating an appropriate Coordination Council and developing a city program. “We must make every effort to help people with disabilities lead a full life, help improve their health. The number of people involved in sports and physical education is the main criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of our work”, I. Metshin concluded. He urged deputies, heads of district and staff of the Executive Committee to develop and approve a roadmap, and actively participate in the creation of a coordination council at the republic level. I. Metshin also thanked the representatives of public associations and noted that city authorities are ready to provide all possible assistance to the work on the development of adaptive sports.