Blacktown City Council and Disability Sports Australia have joined forces to deliver a $15 million sports centre at Blacktown International Sports Park in Rooty Hill. The facility, which officially opened on October 11, is the first of its kind in Australia specifically designed to support disability sport.
CEO of Disability Sports Australia, Ayden Shaw, says people with disability often face barriers to sport due to limited awareness of programs, challenges with accessibility, and hesitant attitudes from organisers or coaches, which can limit participation. For him, this is why the centre sets a new national benchmark.
“Facilities like this change the narrative. They demonstrate that disability sport is about skill, competition, and connection, not therapy,” Shaw explains.
“When people see athletes training and competing in purpose-built, world-class venues, it shifts perceptions from something separate to something essential.”
With “accessibility, flexibility and user-focused design” at the forefront of the project, the centre features two multipurpose courts that are equipped for games such as seated badminton, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby and basketball, volleyball, and goalball. In addition, there is also a gym, a recovery pool, and accessible accommodation nearby.
The idea of having dedicated sporting spaces for people with disabilities has NDIS service provider and owner of Sanctuary Care Services, Megan Vicary, feeling hopeful about the future of her clients who have previously grown up isolated.
“Most kids with autism don’t play a team sport because other kids don’t want them in a team. A lot of kids have gotten to the stage where they’ve been picked on so much, they don’t want to do any team sports,” she says. “These kids are looking for opportunities to be together, to do things with others, but with people that will be safe and accepting of them.”
For athletes competing at high levels, visibility is just as important. Western Sydney Wanderers Powerchair player and host of the podcast Powered By Football, Jaxon Taylor, says disability sport often struggles to be seen.
“At the end of the day, we just want somewhere that will let us play our sport. We’re not asking for too much,” he says. “One of the biggest issues in our sports is the lack of eyes… the potential of a venue to draw in a crowd is exciting.”
Research from The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) found that 1 in 5 (19 percent) people living with a disability who were aged 15-64 experienced social isolation in comparison to 9.5 percent without disability.
While adaptive sports provide physical, social and attitudinal benefits, research shows that athletes often must expend limited personal resources to access programs.
Facilities like the Blacktown Disability Sport Centre aim to reduce these barriers with wide circulation paths, accessible change rooms that include “changing places”, automatic doors, quiet rooms and accessible parking.
“This visibility helps create a cultural shift where participation by people with disability is seen as a normal and valued part of community and elite sport alike. That is when inclusion becomes the standard, not the exception. Centres like this show what is possible when access and inclusion are designed from the start. They demonstrate what sport should look like in every community across Australia,” says Shaw.
Vicary agrees with Shaw’s sentiment that these facilities are vital to disability awareness and acceptance.
“I love the opportunity for the mainstream to open up and let everybody in, you know, everyone that uses a throwaway term, ‘oh inclusion, inclusion.’ But inclusion’s gotta be a lot more than just the word.”
