Version 1
: Received: 17 October 2024 / Approved: 17 October 2024 / Online: 17 October 2024 (17:07:36 CEST)
How to cite:
Kirakosyan, L. The Perceived Impacts of the Rio 2016 Paralympics on the Lives of Disabled Brazilians. Preprints2024, 2024101419. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1419.v1
Kirakosyan, L. The Perceived Impacts of the Rio 2016 Paralympics on the Lives of Disabled Brazilians. Preprints 2024, 2024101419. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1419.v1
Kirakosyan, L. The Perceived Impacts of the Rio 2016 Paralympics on the Lives of Disabled Brazilians. Preprints2024, 2024101419. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1419.v1
APA Style
Kirakosyan, L. (2024). The Perceived Impacts of the Rio 2016 Paralympics on the Lives of Disabled Brazilians. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1419.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Kirakosyan, L. 2024 "The Perceived Impacts of the Rio 2016 Paralympics on the Lives of Disabled Brazilians" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.1419.v1
Abstract
The Paralympic movement leaders, sporting mega-event organizers, and para-athletes in Brazil and elsewhere made frequent claims about the potential of the Paralympics to raise disability rights awareness and generate change in society’s perceptions of disabled people. However, how disabled people themselves view the Paralympics and their outcomes is insufficiently explored in the media and academic literature. This article has a two-fold purpose: first, to explore the views and perceptions of disabled Brazilians regarding the societal change claims made about the Rio 2016 Paralympics; and second, to problematize these claims of lasting societal change through the lens of critical disability theory. The online qualitative survey conducted a year after the Rio mega-event explored the following issues: a) attitudes of broader society towards disabled people; b) disability sport as a tool for social inclusion and equality; c) para-athletes’ visibility and the broader challenges; d) images of disabled people in the Paralympic coverage; and e) outcome of media’s attention for disabled people in general. The main argument is that realizing the Paralympic legacy promises is more complex than the Paralympic movement leaders and the event organizers acknowledge and that the social change legacies are the responsibility of the larger community long after the Games are over.
Keywords
Rio 2016 Paralympics; online qualitative survey; social inclusion; critical disability theory; Brazil
Subject
Social Sciences, Sociology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
