Activity levels among disabled people have failed to return to pre-Covid levels

Activity levels among disabled people have continued to fall away, new research has found, threatening a physical recovery from the pandemic that is “just for the few”.

Now in its third year, the Disability and Activity Survey attempts to capture not only levels of activity among people with disabilities but also their attitudes towards it and the barriers they face. Run by the disability advocacy charity, Activity Alliance, it has recorded the effect of Covid-19 on one of the most vulnerable groups in society.

The headline findings show that four million disabled people in the UK would have been classified as “inactive” over the past year, taking part in less than 30 minutes of physical activity a week. According to the report, this amounts to 42.4% of all disabled people, an increase of 2.6 percentage points from before the pandemic, and compares with 22.6% of non-disabled people as recorded in Sport England’s Active Lives survey.

Activity Alliance’s Kirsty Clark, author of the report, said: “If we look back to the pre-pandemic statistics, we were seeing change in a positive direction. What we’ve seen in the last two years is that this has really ebbed away, and the question now is: how do we get that back quickly?

“Increasing activity levels again will be tough, but we need to make it happen. We all know the various benefits of being active, it shouldn’t be a luxury. It doesn’t all require wholesale adjustments: the key is to involve your local community, understand what their needs are. So it is tough, but if we end up with a recovery that’s just for the few then it’s not right.”

Financial costs and fear of Covid, or other illness, were cited by the survey’s respondents as key factors in preventing a return to