Credo of Special Play and Recreation for People with Disabilities

GLOBAL VISION PROJECT: Global Vision of Rehabilitation
and Recreation for People with Disabilities in the 21st Century

ADVOCACY:
"Credo of Special Play and Recreation; The Credo of Special Play and Recreation for People with Disabilities."
Adopted and Advocated by Special Recreation for disABLED International,
1979, revised 1989 and 1999.

by Prof. John A. Nesbitt, Ed.D., CTRS, Pres./CEO
Special Recreation for disABLED International

Credo of Special Play and Recreation

We believe that every person regardless of illness, injury, impairment, or disability, has the right ...

To achieve her or his highest potential for personal fulfillment and the pursuit of happiness through play and recreation.

To equal opportunity in play and recreation, exercising this human and civil right as a citizen at parity with the general population free of prejudice.

To live a typical play and recreation life-style in the mainstream of society from infancy through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and seniority.

To exercise prerogatives as a consumer in the selection of recreation activities based on personal interests, desires, and aspirations without false activity and program barriers and restrictions.

To participate in all recreation activities (1) by using adaptation which eliminates false activity or program barriers. (2)

To access to all play and recreation facilities (3) without the limitations of architectural barriers.

To call upon the goodwill of the community and community resources for funding, program, and service which provides equal play and recreation opportunity for all.

To receive the aesthetic, affective, cognitive, creative, educational, emotional, medical, mental, physical, and social benefits that can be obtained through play and recreation during the pre-school, school, adults, and senior years.

To receive the therapeutic benefits that can be obtained from professional activity-affective therapies and special/therapeutic recreation service in treatment, rehabilitation, nursing care, home care, education, employment, psychotherapy, and social service.

We believe that every person regardless of illness, injury, impairment, or disability, has the responsibility ...

To direct her or his life-style in the pursuit of happiness by exercising to the maximum the aesthetic, affective, cognitive, creative, educational, emotional, medical, mental, physical, and social aspects of recreation.

To achieve her or his highest potential for personal fulfillment in and through recreation.

To strive for her or his highest possible quality of life in and through recreation.
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(1) Activities. Recreation activities include the following categories: aquatics, arts and performing arts, camping, crafts, cultural and ethnic activities, dance, drama, entertainment, games, health and fitness, hobbies, mental and literary activities, music, nature and outdoor recreation, recreation advising/counseling, recreation education, social recreation, special events, sports, tourism, and voluntary services.

(2) Adaptation. All recreation activities are accessible to disabled persons through adaptation, and/or accommodation, and/or modification of equipment, facilities and materials; and, adjustment of conventions, criteria, regulations, and rules.

(3) Facilities. Recreation facilities include the following general categories: airports, areas, arenas, art centers, auditoriums, camps, community centers, concert halls, field houses, forests, golf courses, gardens, gymnasiums, historical sites, hotels and motels, indoor recreation facilities, lodges, marinas, museums, nature centers, parks and reserves, picnic shelters, playgrounds, recreation buildings, restaurants, rinks, resorts, school facilities, sports facilities, stables, stadiums, swimming, pools, theaters, zoos, and all other forms of indoor or outdoor building or structure that serves the public.

(4) Transportation. Public transportation related to recreation includes: airplanes, automobiles (limousines, taxicabs, vans), boats and ships, buses, elevators and lifts, recreation vehicles, trains, trams and cable cars, underground, and all other forms of transportation that serve to move people, individually, in groups, or in mass, from one location to another.
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Published and Distributed Internationally
by Special Recreation for disABLED International, Inc.
In Behalf of the "UN International Year, International Decade, and
International Annual Day for People with Disabilities," and the
"SRDI Annual International Special Play and Recreation Day and Week"
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NOTE. Directed specifically to the New Millennium, the 21st Century, "The International Declaration of Special Play and Recreation Rights and Responsibilities of People with Disabilities" was adopted and published in 2000. It is available on the SRDI WEBSITE and by EMAIL on request.

Public Domain. The Credo is published in the public domain and may be forwarded, reprinted, broadcast, etc., without permission. SRDI requests that those who use the Credo to inform SRDI in advance and to provide copies of printed material.

Contact:
Professor John A. Nesbitt, Ed.D., CTRS, Pres/CEO
Special Recreation for disABLED International,
362 Koser Avenue, Iowa City, Iowa, 52246-3038 USA.
TEL 319/337-7578
EMAIL john-nesbitt@uiowa.edu
WEBSITE http://www.jccniowa.org/~recdsabl

GLOBAL VISION PROJECT: Global Vision of Rehabilitation and Recreation for People with Disabilities in the 21st Century
A Joint Project by
Disability International Foundation AND
Special Recreation for disABLED International

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