AbstractsRecreation

Inclusion or an inclusive environment can improve health, wellness, and quality of life as well as break down barriers and stereotypes of often-marginalized individuals (Ray, 2002). Inclusion has been defined as ???embracing the similarities as well as the difference between people, creat[ing a] chance for everyone to experience freedom and choice to participate, [and] to value each person and diversity??? (Pegg, Stumbo & Wang, 2011, p. 92). Even though inclusion is about embracing others, many of today???s universities do not have inclusive recreation programs for Campus Recreation. In fact, the researcher of this project could only find four university campuses that have inclusive campus recreation programs. Currently, The Well, at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), has only one inclusive program for student members. The WELL???s climbing wall has adaptive equipment that allows members with various abilities to participate in climbing. Therefore, the goal of this master???s project was to create a training tool that would educate staff on the concept of inclusion and programming for inclusion. Creating four online training ???modules??? accomplished this goal; all modules provided specific information pertaining to the background of inclusion, disabilities, awareness, and constraints (such as internal and external barriers and stereotypes associated with disabilities). In addition, the researcher added mocks of potential inclusive programs to demonstrate how The Well staff could implement inclusive aspects into their current programs.