Austria

For people with any type of disability
Find out the sports structure and educational structure in your country! Check their websites and find information about sportclubs, activities, lists of schools and much more!

Education

Educational Structure

The appropriate Ministry is the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture (BMBWK), but the exe cutive legislation is regulated by regional law in the local authority for education of Vienna – “Vienna Board of Education” (“Stadtschulrat Wien”) and federal authorities for education (“Landesschulräte”) in the other (8) federal states of Austria , therefore there might be some regional differences.

The educational structure in Austria is as follows:

Pre-school (age 5 to 6 )
Compulsory school (age 6 to 15): with or without integration for children with various disabilities
Primary school (age 6 to 10 )
Secondary I (age 10 to 14)
Vocational school (secondary II, age 14 to 18/19)
Graduate School (“Hochschule”), University, various institutions for higher education

There are also schools for Special Education (special needs schools), see the following link for details: What is it?

A study about the situation of integration of children with special needs was made recently. For the data collection for this investigation, carried out by Irene Marihart (master's thesis), questionnaires were sent out to more than 800 schools which were known to cover the specified age group and to conduct at least one integrated class (data source was provided by the federal school administration). Analysing the returned questionnaires, the results demonstrate that the largest portion of the pupils who are entitled to the benefits of inclusive education are children with mental retardation (11,8%) or learning disorder (9%), and only the smaller portion is living with a physical (3%) or sensory (0,7%) disability or several other forms of disability, impairment or handicap (0,5%).

Furthermore, descriptive analysis assessed the adapted facilities for pupils with special needs, the participation rate in physical education (PE) and some details about the educational background of the teachers involved (if they had additional training for APA/disability sports or if they are supported by other pedagogical or medical personnel, etc.).

A qualitative description of opinions and attitudes of the teachers and/or the head of the schools was reporting the estimated (or desired) quality of social integration of pupils with special needs. One of the many examples for successful integration is quoted as: “Successful integration happens when the abilities of every single child get a chance to be expressed and when tolerance is exercised towards failings or weakness which may be part of everyone.” Some other facets are expressed by indicating that integration is working well “when it is no problem for the other children that those with disabilities are submitted to different rules than the others.”

Inclusion in Viennese Compulsory Education (pdf)

Education for trainers/teachers

Courses in Adapted Physical Activity (APA) are part of the curricula for studies in sports science and physical education, and in some teacher’s trainings colleges (PA) and pedagogical institutes (PI) which offer further education as well. There are four institutes for sports science on university level in Austria - Wien ,Salzburg ,Innsbruck ,Graz – and several teacher’s training colleges and pedagogical institutes in almost all of the 9 federal states.

GIVE – is a service centre for wellness and health of the Austrian Red Cross, which works in close cooperation with all educational training centres, and offer fact sheets, folders, info packages, etc. addressing interesting topics for daily work in school (e.g. sport activities for children with and without disability in inclusive PE lessons).
GIVE-folder (pdf)

Sports Academies (BAFL) of Vienna , Linz , Graz and Innsbruck offer a wide range of further education in all kinds of sports and also a sports instructor’s education. In this education students have to specialize in at least two sports of a big number of offers, e.g. tennis, basketball, PE in schools, and among them is also disability sports.

Furthermore you can achieve a coach’s certification in every kind of sports, e.g.:

ski instructor’s training for adapted skiing
This state-approved coach’s certification in adapted skiing – for amputees, blind and the visually impaired, individuals with cerebral palsy and wheelchair athletes – has been developed to qualify coaches, teachers and other persons who are interested in teaching adapted skiing for working with children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities from recreational up to the competitive level

Coach’s education in disability sports (for physical, visual and mental disabilities)
This state-approved coach’s certification in disability sports for individuals with amputations, visual impairments and cerebral palsy and also mental retardation, is a special training for teachers, coaches or any person who wants to be qualified as a special instructor for (summer)sports in schools, sports clubs or day-care institutions.