CONFUSION REMAINS OVER DISABILITIES
NIGEL EATON, EDITOR

What opportunities does scuba-diving hold for people with physical disabilities? Are disabled divers, particularly those with spinal injuries, more prone to decompression illness?
     What are the real barriers to safe participation? Are dive groups, both professional and amateur, aware of their obligations under UK law to cater for disabled trainees?
     These are among the questions explored in The Report on Scuba Diving for Disabled Divers, which was published recently by the Plymouth-based Diving Diseases Research Centre (DDRC).
     Compiled by Susie Shelley, Marguerite St Leger Dowse and Phil Bryson, and co-sponsored by Diver, the report looks at trends affecting disabled divers in the UK, based on questionnaires filled out both by training groups and individual disabled divers.
     The results are revealing and at times worrying.
     Ignorance, for instance, seems to be the keynote when it comes to the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (which requires all training groups to adjust their methods to suit disabled as well as able-bodied students). Very few groups appeared to know about the act, and some did not appreciate why it should apply to them.
     Elsewhere, there is detailed information from trained divers who are not technically disabled but who have had recent surgery, injury and/or are suffering from other illnesses.
     This reveals a bewildering range of medical problems and drugs taken to treat them - and many of these (both the conditions and the medications) appear incompatible with diving.
     On the positive side, the report highlights a growing awareness by existing divers and disabled groups of the strong fit between the two interests. Many dive instructors now appear to recognise the pitfalls of forming stereotyped images of disabled people, and most comments from professional groups are encouraging - often along the lines that they would love to teach diving to more people with disabilities.
     Full updates on the new UK Sport Diving Medical System and the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act are also included in the report, which is essential reference for anyone involved in dive training. Details can be found at www.ddrc.org.
     Meanwhile, the International Association for Handicapped Divers (IAHD) is marking both the European Union's official "Year for People With Disabilities" and its own 10th anniversary with a number of special events in 2003.
     In March there will be ice-dive training in the French Alps. In May there will be a dive expedition to search for a Dutch WW2 submarine lost after an attack by the Japanese navy in December 1941. And in November the association is running a one-day conference covering topics including medical assessment, adaptive training and special equipment.
     Details of IAHD activities can be found at www.iahdeurope.org.




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