Adelyne Heyes, Amy Latimer-Cheung, Marley Mullan, Avery Lorbetskie

Sport participation offers important physical, psychological, and social benefits for persons with disabilities; however, these benefits are highly dependent on the quality of participation experienced. Despite growing evidence outlining the experiential elements that underpin quality participation (QP), many sport program leaders report low confidence, training, and access to disability-specific resources needed to utilize these elements into practice. Furthermore, disability-facing content is underrepresented within national sports, exacerbating gaps between disability research and utilization in sport. Guided by the QP Framework and COM-B model of behaviour change, this study aims to develop resources designed to enhance sport program leaders’ confidence to deliver the six building blocks of QP: autonomy, belongingness, challenge, engagement, mastery, and meaning. Using a mixed-methods design, this research will be implemented with a Special Olympics Ontario swim team of 30 athletes, 12 volunteers, and 1 coach. Sport program leaders will complete pre- and post-implementation questionnaires assessing perceived capability, opportunity, and motivation to use the resources provided and to deliver quality participation. Perceptions of the resources will be explored in a post-implementation semi-structured interview. This data will be analyzed concurrently using thematic analysis. By integrating COM-B with quality participation principles, this research addresses a critical research-to-practice gap by demonstrating how behaviour change theory can inform the design of practical, disability-facing resources for sport program leaders. Findings from this pilot study are expected to inform refinement of these resources, strengthen leader confidence in applying quality participation practices, thereby enabling people with disabilities to more fully access the benefits of sport participation.