Baseball 4 All: Providing Inclusive Spaces for Persons with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that influenced participation in a community program designed to enhance leisure participation among children and young adults with disabilities. The authors grounded their work in a sport development framework and recent work on inclusive and socially just leisure. Participants in the qualitative study included seven coaches from a baseball league designed to deliver sport opportunities for persons with both physical and intellectual disabilities. Results showed that Inclusiveness and Joy were fundamental at the recruitment stage. Organization Failure, which was the dominant theme throughout the data set, emerged at what should have been the retention stage. The authors discuss implications for providing inclusive leisure spaces for persons with disabilities.