 Hi everyone. My name is Ann Cody and I'm special advisor working on international disability rights in the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State. I'm a three-time Paralympian and gold medalist in wheelchair racing. Have one of my medals here with me today. I'm also a Paralympian in wheelchair basketball and it's my pleasure to be here today with two fellow Paralympians and extraordinary women, Anjali Forber Pratt and Scout Bassett to talk about diversity and inclusion in sport and how sport can be a catalyst for change in our own lives as well as in society. I want to introduce Anjali first. Anjali is a Paralympic medalist and world champion in wheelchair racing. She's also an assistant professor at the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University. Her research looks at issues surrounding identity, equity and empowerment for individuals who are different in some way with a large focus on disability. Her experience being adopted from India and being disabled from a young age have greatly shaped her interest in this topic. She's been honored by many, including former U.S. President Obama for her community service efforts and work with youth, welcome Anjali. Scout Bassett, our other guest today, is a two-time Paralympian and world champion in track and field. Adopted from a Chinese orphanage at age seven, she joined sports as a way to connect with her new American peers. She is active supporting the Challenge Athletes Foundation and also spends time off the track as an athlete ambassador and motivational speaker. Welcome Scout. And a special thank you for joining us from California where it is currently 3 a.m. Before we start the discussion, I want to ask all those viewing online to write your thoughts and ask your questions in the comment section and we will get to as many questions as possible over the next hour. Please allow me to take, please also take the survey pinned at the top of the comment section. We want to hear from you about what other kinds of human rights programming you would like to see on this page. I would also like to give special recognition and a warm welcome to all of our viewing groups today from all around the world and a special welcome to the group gathered at the American Center Kigali in Rwanda. Hello Kigali. Okay, I'm going to start, I'm going to start off the discussion by talking about both of your experiences competing in the Paralympic Games. For those of you watching who aren't familiar with the Paralympics or who have never watched it on, watched the Paralympic Games. The Paralympic Games are the pinnacle of elite competition for athletes with physical disabilities. The Paralympics are contested every two years alternating summer and winter games and are jointly organized with the Olympics. The Paralympics transformed the host countries by reshaping attitudes about disability and what people can do and by requiring all buildings and housing and transportation used for the Games to meet international accessibility standards. So Scout and Anjali, how did you first learn about the Paralympics and what compelled you to become a Paralympian and world champion? At first I'd like to toss those two questions over to Scout. So actually I got my start in Paralympics a little bit later on. I was a sophomore in college at UCLA when I got approached by US Paralympics to see if I'd be interested in doing track and field. And at that time I had really no experience. I was actually a endurance athlete doing triathlons before I got into track. And of course when I heard about the opportunity to compete at the Paralympics which is really the pinnacle of a sport for athletes with disabilities, I of course said yes because I wanted to be with the very best to compete with the very best in the world. And so that's how I got initially involved and it was quite a journey for me. I wasn't initially successful on the world stage up until only a year ago when I won my first two medals. But being a Paralympian is one of the proudest things that I've done with my life and not just because of being on that kind of stage, but really the opportunity to represent your country and also to show the world that just because you have a physical challenge doesn't mean that you aren't powerful and strong or capable of doing things that an unable-bodied person would be able to do. Thank you, Scout. There's no question you're a powerful person. Anjali, how did you learn about the Paralympics and what compelled you really to become a Paralympian? So I actually grew up in Natick, Massachusetts which is just west of Boston and there's a pretty important event there every April. And my parents happened to live right on the eight mile marker of the Boston Marathon. And when I was about the one of the earliest memories that I have, I was about five years old, five, six years old. So this was 1989, 1990, 1991. And when I was a little kid there watching the runners go running by for this Boston Marathon, it was the first time that I saw you and your fellow competitors racing and racing wheelchairs. And I was blown away. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. You guys are going so fast and you had disabilities. And so for me as a young girl, it was a chance for me to dream and to dream big. It was a chance where this whole world of sport that I didn't think about, you know, for myself because of using a wheelchair. And this was just the whole new world of possibilities. So after those experiences, I begged my parents, can I please try that? I want one of those. They were able to find a Saturday sports clinic that was about an hour away from my parents' house where I got to try every sport under the sun. I fell in love with the sports of speed and that's when I learned about what the Paralympic Games were. And I realized that that was a goal that I one day wanted to go and compete. The other piece is that I was very fortunate that my grandmother is from Canada. And every year she would actually record on VHS tapes the coverage of the Paralympic Games and would mail it to me so that as a young girl I could see what was possible in terms of achieving my dreams. That's fantastic. Thank you. Anjali and Scout, you are two very accomplished women obviously. What were the biggest challenges you faced in accessing sports? And how did you address those challenges? This time I'm going to ask Anjali to answer first. So I think two big challenges that I faced were transportation and funding. These are two issues that I think even current day Paralympians also struggle with both here in the United States and abroad. For me, my sports were not something that I could just go up the road and participate in the same way that my siblings could. So I'm one of four children in my family. So for my brothers and my sister, most of their sporting activities were much more local. And as I mentioned, we had to travel over an hour just to have similar experiences. And for winter sports, I had to travel about three hours. And so it took a tremendous amount of commitment in order to overcome that obstacle of transportation. I got really crafty at arranging carpools and using bargaining chips of, oh, I can babysit your kids if you help to give me a ride there. And being creative in terms of how to overcome those transportation barriers. With the funding barriers, one of the things that I learned at an early age was to be comfortable in telling my story. And by working on my own public speaking skills very early on, then I was able to tell my story and raise funds to support my athletic endeavors. Really important life lessons there. Definitely. And they've served me well in my career as well. Yeah, that's terrific. Scout, how about you? What were the biggest challenges for you and how are you able to address them? Well, I would agree with Anjali that funding was also a challenge for me. When I grew up in northern Michigan, I grew up in a really, really small town of 1600 people, where I was the only one with a physical challenge in my entire county. And to see another amputee, I didn't see another amputee run until I was 14 years old. And so it was, you know, I didn't even really was not aware of the world of paralympics or even individuals with physical challenges doing sport like Anjali. I didn't know that sport was really an option for someone like me. Never had thought that I would be an athlete or a paralympian, much less. But I started running when I was 14 years old because of a running prosthetic, one of the running blades that you saw earlier in the photos, where I was 14 years old, and that equipment is very expensive. And I think that's a general challenge for all adaptive athletes is the equipment is very, very costly. It's very expensive. So to get a running prosthetic is not something that we could have ever afforded. And I was fortunate enough to get one through the Challenge Athletes Foundation. And that was really the first time that I got to experience running and it changed my whole life. And, you know, just the things that I'd always struggled with as a young girl of self confidence and self esteem and belief. I've been lacking my whole life until I started to get involved in running. And I would also say just, you know, I started doing sports when I was in second grade, but I did it on my everyday walking prosthetic. And as Anjali will probably attest to when I started doing sports, just, you know, my everyday walking like this was before you saw athletes with disabilities on TV or in a magazine or on an ad or billboard, like you didn't see that. And so just the acceptance of being involved in sport and having a disability was really challenging for me growing up. I was often told that I didn't belong and not included and you're welcome to show up in practice, but you're not welcome to compete in the game. And that continued all through grade school and junior high and high school for me. And that was a really big mental challenge for me to overcome that. But one of the ways that I was able to do so is I just committed myself to showing up every day, no matter if my coaches or the teammates or parents didn't want me there. I said, I'm going to be here every day because I want people to know that you can't, you know, keep me out of sport and you can't tell me that I can't be here. And so that was a really good lesson for me in being able to persevere and to endure a very challenging environment in that way. Right. And that's another great example of developing those life skills that you can use. And that will really have probably made a big difference for you in terms of your training and everything as a Paralympic athlete. Absolutely. That's excellent. Thank you. Well, let's get to more questions from our online audience. I want to start with American Center Kigali in Rwanda. American Center Kigali, please ask your first question. And as a reminder, please keep it as brief as possible. My name is Mko Gangawuri Rianne. I'm captain of national team of sitting volleyball for people with disability. My question is, how your teams of people with disability prepare in difference competition? Excellent. Excellent question. So the question was, how do our teams in the U.S. of athletes with disabilities prepare? So team sports, like sitting volleyball, probably wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby are three good examples. So Anjali, I'm going to go to you first with this question. Sure. So here in the United States, we're fortunate that there are some Paralympic training centers often that are housed within colleges or university settings, although not all of them are, which provides a training facility and space for teams to come and get together and to have that dedicated practice time. Other times what will happen is U.S. Paralympics will host training camps throughout the year. And so the calendar set up ahead of time because not all athletes on a given team live in the same community. And so they set up times where throughout the year everyone on those team sports can come together for dedicated periods of time for practice in team bonding and things like that. In a games year, the number of those opportunities and the chance for teams to get together goes up exponentially because you need lots and lots of practice in order to perform as a cohesive team. That's right. And we're fortunate enough to have a whole staff around each of those teams, like the men's and women's wheelchair basketball teams and men's and women's sitting volleyball teams each have their own coach and sports staff and sports medicine staff who support them and administrative staff who support them and making sure they get where they need to be and get the training camp scheduled and have locations. We have some different Paralympic training centers around the country where our athletes train. So that's another benefit of our team sports and athletes. So thank you for that question. American Center Kigali, do you have another question for Scout or Anjali? Yes, we do. My name is Maya. I am a program manager for an organization called Kids Play International and we promote gender equity through sports. So as you're all female Paralympians, my question is, as well as being a Paralympian, did you face challenges as women in this process of becoming professional athletes and what could those be like for and how did you overcome them? Thank you for that question. I'm going to go to Scout on this one. Scout, would you like to respond? Oh, let me actually let me rephrase the question for the broader audience. The question is, since we're all women Paralympians, were there challenges that we faced as women as females in sport, you know, that were specific to our gender and how did we overcome them? Well, I would say that actually when I was initially recruited to do Paralympics, part of the reason why I was recruited in particular is because Paralympics at that time and still to this day is experiencing a disparity between the number of female athletes compared to the number of male athletes. In fact, they have fewer events specifically in track and field still than they do compared to male events and part of that is just because of the numbers, there's fewer females competing than there are males and you know, I think just the challenges that I face being a female are probably challenges whether you have a disability or not and that's that, you know, women being involved in sport, having a career is still something that is I don't think a lot of girls really know is available to them and can be done and and you know, I think that there's so many opportunities for girls to do a lot of different things and pursue a lot of different paths and sports is still something that, you know, as a young woman, it might not be that appealing or, you know, aesthetically beautiful and and we're seeing that the number of girls that drop out before high school in sports is just really alarming and but it's so vital and important because of the self-esteem, the confidence, the success that girls experience as a result of being in sport not just in sport but in academics and in life outside of sport and so I think that was always a, you know, a challenge for me is to see that it was available to me and that I could really pursue a path and especially also being and I know maybe Anjali can attest to this too not only in my female but I'm also Chinese and here in the States you don't see a lot of Chinese runners, you know, or in track and field so that was something that was, you know, for me I didn't see a lot of people that looked like me doing track. That's right, the intersectionality, right, of being a woman and a woman with a disability and a woman with a disability from a minority. Yeah, thank you for raising that and identifying all of that. That was really beautifully stated. So we have a lot of questions coming in from folks all over so we want to get to as many as possible. How do you recommend viewers get involved in supporting inclusion in sport? And why do you think educational, okay, sorry, okay, so here's, oh sorry here's the first question, I'm with you all. How do you recommend viewers get involved in supporting inclusion in sport? So I'm going to go to Anjali with this question. So I would say for any viewers whether you're an athlete, a coach, a program coordinator, whatever your role may be there are many ways that you can support inclusion in sport but the biggest thing is being willing to try and so if you aren't already including athletes with disabilities in your programming or in your community be willing to take that step and to try because a lot of times it's just that simply fear of oh I haven't done this before but if you're willing to try and willing to have that conversation and find athletes with disabilities to participate in your event then you start somewhere and then you can build from that and then one day you might have an entire team. That's right, that's right. So this next question, why do you think educational institutions are so important in sports inclusion? And I'm going to go to Scout with this question. Oh that's a really good question. So when I actually started doing Paralympics now I was training on my own through a coach that was sending me programs from a remote location but when I was at UCLA doing Paralympics not with the Paralympic track team but on my own you know I didn't have the same opportunities that like a wheelchair basketball or a wheelchair track program has at the University of Illinois or University of Arizona where those teams are actually part of the NCA programs and teams at those universities so that was definitely a much different challenge for me being on my own and very rare that an amputee would get a scholarship to go to a college and to compete but even at the high school level at the grassroots level that was really a challenge for me to be accepted and included in that environment and so but I think it's really important that educational whether it's high school or higher level include individuals with disabilities to be involved in sport because it makes the community it makes the the school a better place by having these athletes involved and participating there's something to be gained from both of us learning from each other so I really would love to see more of that inclusion and we're still working on that here in the States. Yeah that's right that's right yeah it's so important the education that happens in those extracurricular activities where athletes are training together and yeah that's great. American Center Jafna in Sri Lanka how did you feel when you want okay so here's a question from the American Center Jafna in Sri Lanka how did you feel when you won a medal at the Paralympics? Over to you Anjali. As cliche as it sounds it was quite literally a childhood dream come true but something that Scout also said earlier is there is also a sense of responsibility that I felt with winning a medal to be able to bring that responsibility back to my country and back to the broader Paralympic sport community and to be able to continue to push the legacy of sport particularly for athletes with disabilities forward. I'm certainly proud of the medals that I have won but it's been truly that responsibility and the opportunity to pay it forward and to help to support the next generation of particularly young women and girls coming up after us that has been really really special for me. Terrific. We have a question from American Center viewing group the American Center viewing group in Bishkat, Kyrgyzstan. Can international athletes train in the U.S. and do any organization sponsor athletes? So Scout let me start with you. Can international athletes train in the U.S. and are there any organizations that might sponsor these athletes? Yes we do see in particular with Paralympics a few athletes with disabilities training here in the U.S. I actually currently train at one of our national training centers the Olympic Training Center down in Chula Vista and we have a couple of Japanese Paralympians that also train at the center they come and go throughout the year. It's not super common just because the funding required for them to come is a bit challenging those athletes are paid to train here in the U.S. by their national Paralympic committee so that's how they're able to be here but I would say it's quite challenging you know in terms of finances it's not super common. Yeah can I jump in there? So I would also say another pathway for international athletes wanting to training in the United States is actually through applying and getting accepted to an American college or university so university programs I think you see more international athletes with disabilities who are in addition to receiving their education also have the opportunity to participate in sport so it just it depends on the the type of sport. Yeah that's a great that's a great point. The U.S. Consulate General in Krakow Poland coaches play a very important role in the training process and preparation stage. What were your coaches like and did they specialize in working with athletes with disabilities? Start with you Anjali. So early on in my career my coaches were basically parents of other of other athletes with disabilities and I think that's something that's very common particularly in the disability sport movement and and it was parents who just wanted their children to have an opportunity to participate in sport and and so forth but once I got to the university level and had the had the opportunity to train at one of the best universities for wheelchair racing the University of Illinois that was when I had the opportunity to work with coaches who were also wheelchair users and who had experience as an as athletes themselves and and were able to to balance both that coaching mindset that this question is getting at as well as what does that mean for me as an athlete and how and how can I connect my training and and what I'm working on every day in practice and to transfer that to the field of competition and for me that was a really critical missing link that I got from athletes who who from sorry from coaches who were also athletes. And Scout I want to ask you the same question because it's a little bit different for running athletes who use prosthetics so. Yes um like I said there aren't teams necessarily in the states that you know have tracking field programs for athletes with disability I mean for amputees and so a lot of amputees have to find that coaching and that program on an individual basis on their own and obviously I was not allowed to train with the tracking field team at UCLA because I wasn't there on a track and field scholarship but after I left UCLA after I graduated I did start training at a much smaller university in California with a coach there but now I'm currently training with a national coach at the training center who is a three-time Olympian and he actually doesn't really have a lot of experience working with Paralympians his background is working with Olympians able body athletes and professional sprinters but he did work in the early 90s with the guy by the name Marlon Shirley who was the first amputee to break the 11 second barrier in the 100 meters and so that was his first experience working with a Paralympic athlete and then many years and decades in between and then he took me on as an athlete but I think it's you know I just want to encourage people out there that I don't think that you have to necessarily have Paralympic experience to be a coach to be a mentor to individuals with disabilities looking to get involved in athletics because his coaching method and his style was that you know we would have to make changes you know based on what I was able to do with my running prosthetic but he would train me and make me go through the same workouts and the same program that he had for the able body athletes and that I would train alongside them we wouldn't have separate practice times we would train together and we would be doing the same workouts and program together and that was initially a bit challenging for me I was a little bit worried about how the able body Olympians would accept me or not accept me and and it turned out to be a really great experience and has been a great journey because I've learned a lot from them they've learned a lot from me and really the idea of pushing each other learning from each other is really important so no matter where you are whether there are athletes with disabilities or not it's important to train and to work together yeah excellent and in many ways I mean that's what the disability rights movement is about and that's what Paralympic sport is about it's about you know culturally bringing everyone together so that we all have an equal playing field and so that there's total integration and inclusion across every area of our lives so that's fantastic American Center Colombo in Sri Lanka do you think it would be possible to organize an inclusive or simultaneous games meaning the Olympics and Paralympics together rather than two separate events uh this is my favorite question I love it good okay um Anjali would you like to take it sure sure great so first I'll let well I absolutely love the question and and I'm not not ever gonna say never um I don't I don't think that we're there yet because uh and the reason for that is is quite quite simply logistically um to in order to house both all of the Olympic athletes and Paralympic athletes and and to put on a high caliber competition experience for both of those individuals you run into some less logistical challenges of physical space as well as the competition schedule itself um without having something that would last you know two months although I'd be okay with competitions lasting lasting for two months logistically it does become a challenge but I think that we don't we don't we shouldn't be ruling it out um because you know if we're if we're pushing for inclusion that's what inclusion truly means I think that what we're seeing right now is a really exciting time with the Paralympic movement where the Paralympic movement is being included um in this broader Olympic movement and in ways that that I hadn't previously seen before and to me that's that's exciting we're seeing athletes with with disabilities that are that are being featured in advertisements that are where you know in in London in particular one of the last games that I competed in the Paralympic games sold out and there were people you know that were that were disheartened because they couldn't get tickets to the Paralympic games and so we're seeing this changing um over time so I would I would not rule it out but I don't know how you would pull it off yep I agree so the American Corner in Jaffna Sri Lanka asks how has the international Paralympic committee or the U.S. government encouraged you to participate in Paralympic sports hmm so are there any programs or things that either the U.S. government has done or the international Paralympic committee to encourage you to participate in Paralympic sport scout I'll I'll throw this over to you if you if you can't think of anything that's okay we can I can take the question in so one thing that's a bit unusual here in the U.S. compared to other countries with Paralympic programs is the U.S. Paralympics or our U.S. Olympic committee is not government funded which in many countries it is their their teams are funded through the government so we are a nonprofit organization here in the United States so well so we don't receive government funding so uh the encouragement to participate in sports really does come from nonprofit groups through you know me being recruited by U.S. Paralympics but also through groups like the challenge athletes foundation that I serve as a spokesperson for which really helps individuals with physical challenges to get the adaptive sports equipment the funding the programs here in the states to have that entry level experience with sport and to continue to take you know that path wherever however level the athlete wants to reach and so that's something that's happening here in the states on you know I suppose there are probably nonprofit groups also in other countries that are doing the same but I know that in most places it is a government program and and um it's government funded but it's not like that here in the U.S. so it just really does come directly from the USOC to participate in sport right I will just mention I'll put a plug in for the sports diplomacy department here at the U.S. Department of State now our Paralympic sports programming is is directed outwards to the international community so we have some fantastic programming that goes on throughout the year where we're reaching out to through our embassies overseas to young people with disabilities who are participating in sport and engaging them in activities where they might come to the U.S. on an exchange and learn about how a Paralympics sport or other disabilities sport is organized here in the U.S. and we also have a mentorship program that mentors emerging leaders in Paralympics sport here in the U.S. so I know that we're doing but but you're absolutely right the U.S. government does not fund U.S. Paralympic athlete development and the international Paralympic committee has some great programming that they do through the Agitos Foundation again partnering with national Paralympic committees around the world who are looking to develop sports and emerging sports in in their countries so well let's go to the next question from U.S. Consulate Krakow in Poland do students with disabilities have the same access to sports scholarships at universities as students without disabilities hmm so I think we know scouts answer but go ahead go ahead and and give a really short answer and then Anjali is good yes for an athlete with an amputation it's very rare to get a scholarship to compete at a university I was able to actually went to UCLA on a full scholarship but it was a merit-based academic scholarship so not even related to athletics but we actually just currently have our first individual with a double amputation he is currently competing at the University of Arkansas on a track and field scholarship and he's the first amputee to receive a track and field scholarship at a division one university wow so we are breaking barriers I think it will be an opportunity for future athletes or amputees to be able to receive scholarships and hopefully one day we'll see a woman that will receive a division one scholarship that's right that's really exciting that's great news now in wheelchair sports some of the sports like basketball and track and field there are some scholarships available for athletes in those sports and that's a fairly new development what they weren't available when I was a college athlete when I was a collegiate athlete but but we're really fortunate to have those opportunities now for sure before we get back to our American Center viewing group in Kigali I want to remind you to please take the survey the link is pinned to the top of the Facebook comment section let us know what other kinds of human rights programming you want to see on this page all right American Center Kigali please ask your question and as a reminder please keep it as brief as possible thank you thank you my name is Sonia Ruton I'm a lawyer from around the brass association a member of young lawyers so I want to know what can do you expect from us from lawyer what help can we do uh from the disability with people of disabilities so it's my question that's an excellent question can we do for us for you for the people excellent thank you for the question um our our questioner asked she's a she's with the young lawyers association in uh Rwanda and she's asking what can lawyers do to help and to help athletes with disabilities and I know Anjali has some experience with this where she actually had a legal case um so I'm going to let her explain that sure uh so wonderful wonderful question and I think that that for young lawyers and for for any individuals that that are wanting to support the rights particularly the legal rights for individuals with disabilities one thing that I would say is becoming familiar with the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities it's commonly uh abbreviated the CRPD um particularly important in that CRPD is article 30.5 I'm not going to quiz you on this later but article 30.5 has to do with with providing sport opportunities for individuals with disabilities and that individuals with disabilities should have the same access to sport um and so forth but there's lots of other things within this the CRPD that includes access to employment access to education um and and to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability and you know be the more that you as can be familiar about the fact that this international treaty in and so forth exists and find out whether your country has signed on to support that or not and if not maybe that's something that you can that you can take on um then the more the more awareness that there can be about disability rights in the in these spaces from my own experience I had to fight in order to get access to an education even here in the United States and I ended up having to hire myself a lawyer and take them on in the United States federal court system just to get an education and so I think that it's through it's through these conversations where where we where we need lawyers to be versed in disability rights and disability law in order to in order to bring about change for society absolutely and we've had we've had a number of athletes also who had specific sports related um legal cases were at were obviously lawyers played a really key role um so so thank you and and continue to your to pursue your interest in this area it's really important okay American Senator Kigali here's the next question my name is Johnny Williams yes please go ahead my name is Johnny Williams from the one a one-down organization for journalists advocating for the people living with disabilities Roger played through media my question is as follows did the media play any role to make your fame or they came in later after you are already famous if they came in later what would you recommend it to the media worldwide in order to highlight this field as well okay so um your question is your um the question is from the journalists and the question was how can the media play a role in um in supporting the athletes in the Paralympic movement um do I have the question right I just said did the media play any role to make your fame or they came in later oh got it yeah right yeah does the media play a role in making Paralympic athletes famous or do they come in after you've already reached that um level of fame so I'm gonna toss it to scout well that's a very interesting question I mean I think part of being an individual with a physical challenge is it's always going to garner some sort of interest even if it's on for me growing up like on the local level the local newspaper was interested in my story mainly because it was so unusual and I'd come from a different place having been born in China and lived in an orphanage and then came to the US so there's always been interest really throughout my whole life in terms of from a media perspective I would say it became even more heightened when I started to get involved in the Paralympics and obviously to compete and part of that is just as an individual like if you have sponsors or organizations that you're really involved with that help to bring media interests or if you're involved in causes like sport diplomacy or nonprofit groups that are doing great work with individuals with disabilities so I would definitely say it's you know I think the media is such a huge part in being able to tell the stories of these athletes because they are incredible stories they're phenomenal and I think it's an important role you know to be able to tell those stories because that's really how the broader public the general public gets to understand and recognize disability and and to really value these individuals as human beings that have tremendous worth and so it's really important role that the media plays in being able to cover events like the Paralympics to tell the stories of the athletes that's right that's right did you want to yeah I mean I'll just add a little bit to that I think it's an important question and I think it's a little bit of both right I think that that we need the media in order to get the recognition and the visibility to potentially lead to sponsorships and so forth but I would say that you know once you reach a level of athletic success and so forth then it does draw it automatically draws some attention from media and and you get more asks and more more kind of pieces of that but the more that you can and echoing what scout was saying the more that you can capitalize on those media outlets that are interested in telling your story then what you can do is to package that as a professional you know press kid and to keep track of those media appearances that you do to bring that level of professionalism to your athletes with disabilities and to Paralympic movement and I think I'm just thinking back to my experience too and I think we still see some of this in the US media and I'm not sure if other countries experience it too but journalists initially get interested sometimes from a human interest perspective as opposed to an elite athlete for the sake of sports interests in Paralympic athletes or athletes with disabilities who are working toward that higher elite level so that's always a challenge so there's an education process that as a you know as a new athlete you have to go through with journalists to help them understand that you really don't want to be a human interest story because you're because you really are serious about sport and you're good at it and that's really the story I mean the the athlete stories are very important as long as that is also you know part of this part of educating the public and giving them information about the competitiveness and what it takes to be an elite athlete I think. Alright let's try to get back to more questions from our other viewers around the world. The American Center in Colombo asks is there diversity within Paralympic sports with regard to ethnicity and socioeconomic status? Okay go ahead Scout. That's a really great question I really love that question I would say it depends on what part of the world you're in and where you're here in the U.S. you know there's a decent amount of diversity in terms of ethnicity in Paralympics and in sport but in groups like for me being Asian it's very very small very few Asian American athletes are competing in the Paralympics representing the U.S. So in terms of socioeconomic status I think you see the whole range and especially because the adaptive sports equipment is very costly very few people families here in the states can even afford that equipment that's why non-profit groups you know personal funding you know fundraisers are really important in getting that equipment and the training and the costs to be able to compete so I think you know here in the U.S. you see a little bit of everything but there's certainly more work to be done in terms of getting a broader spectrum of athletes and greater diversity in in Paralympics here. Yeah I would agree the socioeconomic piece too if you if you kind of look out internationally it is really challenging because the equipment that the three of us use and require in the sports that we competed in really are I mean it cost prohibitive for athletes in countries where these types of resources aren't even available and to ship them in would cost thousands and thousands of dollars that just aren't available so I know it's a real challenge in terms of equity across all of the athletes from all the regions across the world so. One thing I'll just add to that though is that there too particularly to wheelchair racing there are now two companies here in the United States that have realized that that gap and are now and are now producing racing chairs for programs that are looking to develop at a much lower cost so a typical racing wheelchair is anywhere from five thousand dollars to six thousand dollars and they're making these that are in the one thousand to fifteen hundred dollar range with the ability to to grow a program and and and and to have it a little bit and still that's still a hefty cost but we're we're starting to to get some movement around companies realizing that gap and to make sure that we're filling that gap especially for for individuals from from other countries okay great glad to hear that we have a question from us consulate consulate general in crack out any guidance for instructors who would like to train persons with disabilities and chile how about you yeah so I think if first of all and something that scout mentioned as well talk with other coaches talk with individuals and about whatever that sport is that you're really wanting to train and and once you have that sport foundational knowledge then you can learn about the nuances about a particular disability group by interacting with that athlete because one of the things that you'll find within the disability community in particular is as you see both and I are sitting here using wheelchairs but what works well for me might be something totally different than what's what works well for and and that's true with any athlete that you're coaching as well you have to get to know the athlete as an individual and that person with a disability in terms of what what slight modifications do you need to make to that training program overall the other piece and maybe and can speak a little bit more to this because I know that the US Department of State has a mentor program which I believe is a one opportunity for individuals such as coaches and and individuals wanting to learn more to come to the US and learn we do have we do have a couple of programs the global sports mentoring program sport for community is a program where individuals are nominated by our US embassies to be considered as as candidates for our mentoring program which is a four-week program and we we take emerging leaders in disability sport so if you're working in Paralympics special Olympics deaflympics you come and spend four weeks here with a mentor professional senior executive person in in the disability sports industry here and learn about the things where you have gaps in information that you need in order to develop as an instructor we also have the shorter two-week sports visitor programs that are special specialized programs as well that are designed for coaches if you're looking for more of that sport specific technical expertise those opportunities are available as well so thank you for that our American Corner in Colombo has the following question are you aware of any sports mentoring programs for children with disabilities how are athletes assessed and placed in competition categories okay so these are two separate questions I think they're so the first question if we could scroll back for a moment are you aware of any sports mentoring programs for children with disabilities yes so in for children with disabilities here in the United States we have quite a few community-based programs that provide opportunities for children to participate in sports very similar to what I was describing on that Saturday sports clinic where I got to learn about different sports I know that and Scout mentioned the Challenge Athletes Foundation they also have programs Disabled Sports USA is another one and so these programs exist particularly to get children involved in sport here in the United States we also have been working on a new initiative really since some legislation passed there was a dear colleague letter in 2013 that wanted to for us to improve school-based sport opportunities so in our K-12 schooling for students with disabilities so what we're what we've been working on and I've been a part of this national task force is working to connect our schools with those community-based sport programs for people with disabilities to make sure that the coaches from within a school have the resources and the tools to be able to provide that truly inclusive sport environment in the school as opposed to having to go out to the go out to that specific organization yeah that's great it's a great initiative okay the second question is how are athletes assessed and placed in the competition category so we can still talk about children in this sense but I'm going to toss this one to Scout so it's really a question about classification and categorization yeah well I'll just speak in particular to track and field but I do think it's some more in all Paralympic sports so here you have to well around the world to be honest you have to go through a classification process and the Paralympic committee actually says it makes certain events and competitions as events that an athlete can go and compete at and also be classified so these are trained professionals individuals who are able to look at an individual sometimes there's medical documentation required in fact they're requiring that now even for somebody that has a permanent disability like an amputation where you need to get medical documentation of what your amputation was what level was the amputation at and basically provide evidence that it's a permanent situation and so you do have to go to these events that are certified approved through the Paralympics and those are all available on their website through the Paralympics website on there if you look up an individual sport you can see the classifications and then how you know where these classification events and competitions are at so all athletes that compete in the Paralympics do need to be classified within a certain class obviously to make the events the competition as fair as possible right and then the junior athletes who are kind of more entry-level and emerging when they come into the sport they have to be classified as well so it might be the national Paralympic committee or one of the sports like wheelchair basketball has their own classification program but you're right it's when the athletes come in to those competition opportunities is where they have the opportunity to be assessed for their classification so great the American Center Kigali in Rwanda would like to ask one more question Kigali what is your final question my name I'm Gatera Emmanuel I'm a foundation of Paralympic committee in Rwanda 2000 excellent and I have a project to make prosthesis in Rwanda prosthetic and I solve free of charge so now my question I need to can help in America I have some school for sports for disability if you have a sport if you have school I need some help because many men disabled in Rwanda you need to go into school for sport and I see you a sport you are wheelchair marathon and also me I needed to start wheelchair marathon 2020 in Tokyo maybe I can meet thank you thank you very much Anjuli I'm gonna pass oh so let me frame the question so our question is from the gentleman from the national Paralympic committee of Rwanda and he has athletes who are looking for an education and also to compete in sport and so he's wondering if there are education opportunities here in the US where the athletes can come and and train and learn at the same time yes so so we have we do have opportunities for athletes particularly who are at the college or university age for that to happen there are also some programs where individuals may come and get used to living here in the United States and maybe going to a community college before then transitioning into an American college or university where you can you can also take advantage of of of coaching and working with the teams it really depends on the sport though so it's hard to hard to give you one specific concrete answer to it because it really depends on the sport and and and the type of disability that that that individual might have right and I also just want to make a plug for young people with disabilities who are still in high school would be eligible for study abroad programs now they wouldn't specifically come over here to learn about Paralympic sport but they would come over and study in the US for a year and they could certainly get exposed to opportunities that we have here and certainly there are higher education opportunities as well if you have an individual who's really serious about getting a college degree I'm sure the university I'm sure the embassy staff would be able to give you more information about that but it's terrific it's terrific to meet you thank you for the good work that you're doing I also want to thank Scout Bassett and Anjali Forber Pratt for being with us to talk about diversity and inclusion and using sport as a catalyst for change this has been a terrific discussion with really great questions from our online audience thank you to all of those watching and I want to give special recognition to our viewing groups watching from all around the world American Center Kigali in Rwanda the US Consulate General in Krakow Poland the US Embassy in Helsinki Finland American Center Colombo in Sri Lanka American Center Jaffna in Sri Lanka the US Embassy in Lusaka Zambia American Center Moscow in Russia American Center Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan American Corner UDP in Santiago Chile American Corner at Hashimite University in Jordan the American Space in the Philippines before we go I want to ask viewers to like this page if you liked the program follow us on Facebook and Twitter the handle is at State DRL to find out more about human and civil rights programming supported by the US State Department just a few more things I want to mention we 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