The Sport Consumer Experience of People with Disabilities: Challenges and Pathways to Inclusivity

Call for Papers
The Sport Consumer Experience of People with Disabilities: Challenges and Pathways to Inclusivity
Journal: Managing Sport and Leisure
Abstract deadline: 08 December 2025
Manuscript deadline: 30 June 2026

This special issue focuses on the sport consumer experiences of people with disabilities and examines the barriers they face in accessing and participating in sport as fans and consumers. It treats sport consumption as a multidimensional experience shaped by legal, cultural, social, economic, and institutional forces.

The call is grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, especially the right to participate in recreational, leisure, and sporting activities on an equal basis with others. It also builds on international human rights guidance stressing accessibility and nondiscrimination in cultural and sporting participation. Despite this framework, disabled fans still face challenges such as transport barriers, ticketing complexity, inadequate facilities, social exclusion, and abusive behavior.

Special Issue Editors

• Marianna Pavan, Manchester Metropolitan University.

• Paul Widdop, Manchester Metropolitan University.

• Seamus Byrne, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Scope
The issue invites interdisciplinary work from sport and cultural studies, sociology, management, marketing, law, leisure studies, and political science. Topics include accessibility to sporting events, structural barriers to inclusion, matchday experience, financial burdens, intersectional experiences, belonging and visibility, discrimination and abuse, and human rights protections at local, national, regional, and international levels. The call also welcomes research on technologies and emerging practices that may improve or complicate accessibility for disabled fans.

Submission details
Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and include a title and authors. Full papers are due by 30 June 2026, with an estimated decision date of 30 September 2026 and expected publication in February 2027. Papers should be submitted directly to the guest editors by email, and the journal’s author guidelines should be followed for the full manuscript.

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