Promoting Active Living and Sports as a Node for Wellbeing

Abstract

Physical inactivity is associated with various chronic diseases and early death. The pandemic and the economic crisis worsened mental disorders and the inability to cope with stress in healthy ways. People with disabilities may represent a barometer to quantify and assess equal access to sports. A multilevel strategy for the development of both social and physical environments must overcome the ‘medical’ meaning of health, dealing increasingly with a broader disability culture design. The promotion of an active lifestyle for all is a thread common to design products and services, with several national and international proposals to enable both a physical and service-based accessibility to wellness opportunities. A short field research conducted during the pandemic, starting from a visual campaign for athletes with Down syndrome, suggested a wide-ranging reflection on sports as amusement, on inclusive language and on equal participation in sports opportunities.