Active Disability Ireland Xcessible NGB Silver Level Award
Swim Ireland are absolutely delighted to be awarded with the Active Disability Ireland Xcessible NGB Silver Level Award. This has been a key objective for the organisation, and we are very pleased to receive this recognition. We wish to thank the entire Swim Ireland team, Clubs, Volunteers, and wider Aquatics Community for all their hard work and commitment to inclusion and providing opportunities for participation for people with a disability.
This has been a transformational year for Swim Ireland as we continue to work to achieve our overall Vision of ‘An Island of Swimmers’ as part of our Strategic Plan. We have demonstrated a strong commitment to the Xcessible programme and Toolkit promotion and support for clubs, as well as ensuring external representation with living experience of disabilities are on relevant steering groups to assist our decision making. We have utilised data collection to help inform our approach and we continue to offer a vast range of inclusive training to the swim coach and teacher community. We have also further enhanced our participant and performance pathways and developed new resources such as ‘Me, My Child & the Water’ which is aimed at parents and carers of children with disabilities.
We continue to support facilities to improve their accessibility and advise in the development of new builds, including sustainable and inclusive approaches. Our Pop-Up Pool has been a huge success, providing accessible opportunities for people to participate in swimming. We have also prioritised our Communications Framework and our new redeveloped website which is due to go live soon contains an accessibility tool and will have a dedicated section for people with a disability within ‘Aquatics for all’.
We now look forward to embedding the Xcessible Silver Level Actions within the organisation, and continue to prioritise accessibility and inclusivity within Aquatics, with a view to achieving the Xcessible Gold Award in the future.
Swim Ireland Governance, Inclusion and Research Officer, Andy O’Rourke