Equality News Update: Aberdeen Evening Express: Boost in number of children with disabilities learning to swim in Aberdeen

The National Learn to Swim framework, which is delivered by Sport Aberdeen, Aberdeen Sports Village and Aberdeen Amateur Swimming Club (ASC) across 12 pools in the city, aims to ensure children of all abilities can become confident, competent and safer swimmers.

A report by Scottish Swimming revealed that 100% of children with disabilities in Aberdeen ASC and 77% of children with some additional support requirement in Sport Aberdeen attend mainstream classes, which not only develops their swimming ability but also enhances their confidence and social skills.

As part of the #SeeMyAbility campaign, leisure trusts and aquatic providers have been given a toolkit to support and help swimming instructors to teach in an inclusive way for those with disabilities.

Diane Breen, coached programmes manager at Sport Aberdeen, said: “We have increased the number of children with disabilities in mainstream lessons from 166 to 184 since the start of the summer as a result of our inclusion work. This is fantastic and we very much support the #SeeMyAbility campaign.”