The concept and practice of social inclusion in sport are still undefined, causing
confusion both in the field of sport policy and practice. According to the United
Nations (UN), a conceptual and analytical work on what constitutes inclusion is needed.
Therefore, this study aims to define social inclusion in sport for people with disabilities
by reviewing the existing literature. Using a scoping review framework, articles related
to a possible definition of social inclusion in sport or to the elements of this definition
were reviewed. For the eighteen (18) articles selected, the focus was on 152 statements,
which were grouped into 6 main categories, namely: policy (29), fundamental conditions
(28), key elements (30), soft skills (20), field gaps (31), and best practices (14).
Ten keywords were extracted from each of the six categories using the free online
program cortical.io. All 60 keywords were then compared with each other. After deleting
the duplicates, 24 keywords remained, which were classified into five major categories:
(1) key people, (2) key environments, (3) key ways to use, (4) key benefits, and (5)
key barriers, in order to create a descriptive definition of social inclusion in sport
for people with disabilities that can contribute to the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.
In addition to the definition, relevant issues were also raised for in-depth discussion
and further research.
