Inclusive Facilities
All of our Council facilities are inclusive for both disabled adults and children. Disability Sport Hubs were launched at the Valley Leisure Centre, Allen Park and Crumlin Leisure Centre in March this year. The Hubs have disability sports equipment including twelve sports wheelchairs, one rugby wheelchair, three track racers, five hand cycles, four tandems, three trikes, three boccia sets and one sensory activity pack. These are run in partnership with Disability Sport NI and have proven very popular with our disabled residents. We have ongoing upgrades to our facilities to further improve our accessibility such as Changing Facilities and Inclusive Signage. We offer many sports and programmes to both adults and children with a disability. The Council has 10 Every Body Active Coaches who have various target groups with ‘People with a Disability’ being one of them. The coaches schedule work with disabled groups with sport specific sessions such as rugby, netball, athletics, hockey, gymnastics, football, fundamental games and exercise classes.
Leisure Centres
The gyms and swimming pools in each of our leisure centres are accessible for everyone. Each of our leisure centres have a wheelchair accessible lift and the leisure centres which have a swimming pool also have a hoist to help those with a disability in and out of the pool. We are currently working with DSNI to implement ‘Pool Pods’ in two of our leisure centres which will allow a more dignified and independent entry to the swimming pools than the hoists. Each of our fitness suites also have pieces of equipment which can be adapted for wheelchair users. As part of the gym equipment replacement programme we aim to provide a high percentage of IFI accredited gym equipment.
Leisure Centre Membership
We have leisure membership concessionary rate for those with a disability. If the disabled person requires a carer to help them, the carer can accompany them free of charge. For more details on our memberships including concession criteria visit our MORE membership page
Swimming Lessons
Our adult swimming classes are open to all abilities and if required one-to-one coaching is available. For details on these swimming classes please contact the leisure centres T. 028 9448 1499.
Please note, due to Covid-19, our swimming lessons are currently under review. For updates, please E. more@antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk
Summer Schemes
We offer inclusive Summer Scheme programmes where children with all abilities can enjoy sports and leisure activities together. We assess children with disabilities and/or medical conditions to ensure the required individual needs of the children are catered for prior to their arrival at our Summer Schemes. To further promote the participation of children with disabilities in Summer Schemes, we have provided access to funding of up to £5000 for each Special Needs School in the Borough for the Summer Schemes available at their school. This works well for children who have specific needs such as Autism were they strive for familiarity and for those with more severe physical needs who may require specialist equipment.
Activities for deaf, blind/partially sighted
Our activities are inclusive for all. We have recently installed new signage with braille and have loop systems in all of our facilities. We run a golf programme at Allen Park for those who are visually impaired and have previously held spin classes for the same group which have proven to be very popular. Our Boccia club is also available to anyone who is visually impaired. We have plans to run a football programme for some of the local schools who have pupils with visual impairments. 'Wheelie Active’ is suitable for children aged 4-14 years. In the class the children learn the fundamentals of exercise and sport such as moving around in the chair, throwing catching etc.
We also run Wheelchair hurling and netball programmes which target older children in a more sport specific session. One of our Everybody Active coaches recently completed her level 1 in Wheelchair basketball and has started to schedule in wheelchair basketball sessions.