For over forty years, Active Inclusion was a leading disability and inclusion support body in South Australia. We’d like to thank you for your support of the organisation over its history.
Directing Your Enquiries
For South Australian athletes needing to complete eligibility applications for School Sport, National and International (Virtus) competitions, please contact Sport Inclusion Australia.
The former Rapidswim program is now part of Minda.
The former Behaviour Support SA business is now part of Barkuma.
Many sports and clubs now have dedicated inclusion programs for people with disability. We encourage you to explore your options with:
History – About Us
In 1971, Mrs. Marie Little was appointed as a social worker at the newly opened Strathmont Centre and over the next decade assisted many women with intellectual disability to play netball through collaboration with Netball SA. In 1981, a feasibility study was carried out by the State Department of Recreation and Sport (DRS) regarding how South Australian people with an intellectual disability were represented or included in community sport, recreation and leisure activities.
When the Intellectual Disability Services Council (IDSC) was created in 1982, Marie was offered and accepted the opportunity to lead the development of the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in a range of sporting programmes. IDSC continued to employ Marie and also made funding available to hire an office in Finnis Street, North Adelaide and for clerical support. This resulted in the formation of the Sport and Recreation Association of Intellectually Disabled Persons Incorporated (SRAIDP). SRAIDP was to address the outcomes of DRS study and to work towards the inclusion of people with an intellectual disability into valued community leisure activities. In 1986, Marie founded AUSRAPID and was one of the founding directors of the Australian Paralympic Federation (APF) in 1990.
In 1990, the Association’s name was changed to the South Australian Sport and Recreation Association for People with Integration Difficulties Incorporated (SASRAPID) to cater for the needs of all people with an integration difficulty. At that time the secondment arrangement was terminated and IDSC funded SASRAPID as it did other organisations.
More recently, SASRAPID established that the barriers faced by people living with a disability to become included in their local sports club are very similar, if not the same, for many other marginalised, disadvantaged or disengaged groups such as new migrant groups, the LGBTIQ+ community and other marginalised/disadvantaged groups. With this in mind, Sasrapid has moved forward focusing on these new audiences alongside people living with disability.
In August 2014 Sasrapid changed its name to “Inclusive Sport SA” to better align to its new purpose of ‘Building inclusive communities through sport and recreation’. Since then, Inclusive Sport SA had a leading role in advocating for the inclusion of all people into the mainstream sport and recreation community.