Anne-Dorte Andersen’s Commitment to Helping Danes of All Abilities
By Luis Ruuska, Samantha Coley, Jennifer Webb and Brandon Crawford
In this podcast, the project coordinator for the Danish Sports Organization for the Disabled, Anne-Dorte Andersen, talks about growing up with dysmelia, becoming a Paralympian and her thoughts on disability rights in Denmark.
Nurturing Confidence
Anne-Dorte Andersen has experienced adversity throughout her personal and professional life. As the project coordinator for the Danish Sports Organization for the Disabled, she is now helping young people with disabilities overcome the same challenges she experienced when she was young and encourage them to take part in sports.
“The aim is to enable more children with a disability to engage in Paralympic sport and make the sport more accessible for children,” Andersen explains.
Like perhaps any disabled child, Andersen experienced a mix of doubt and support through her career.
“In Wales and England, I found, especially with teachers working with pupils with a learning disability, that they did not think I was able to understand and develop sport for this group because I had a physical impairment myself,” Andersen says. “So I had to prove my worth time and time again.”
Andersen insists that the challenges are worth it, though, when she gets to help children with disabilities partake in something that brings them so much joy.
“I love to see how sports participation can change children with a disability and their family’s life. See the joy on their faces and see the confidence grow,” she says.
Specifically, Andersen helped turn two girls’ lives around when their way of life was changed immediately.
“One got disabled in an accident and the other due to illness,” she recalls. “For me to be so lucky to work with them while they were still in rehabilitation and until now where sports has been used as a tool to get life back.”
Even though there has been much progress for women with disabilities, there still needs to be more done to create more leaders for young people to look up to.
“You do not see role models in society because we are so few,” Andersen says.
“Fighting to be recognized”
Both the United States and Denmark have regulations when it comes to the treatment of individuals with disabilities. In 1993, Denmark developed an equal opportunity resolution that encourages both public and private companies to give equal opportunities to both disabled and non-disabled individuals. The U.S. applied a similar resolution known as the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. President George H.W. Bush signed the act, which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodations, commercial facilities, telecommunications and state and local governments.
Though Denmark does have regulations in place for the treatment of individuals with disabilities, those individuals are not recognized as equally in sports. Unlike the US Olympic Committee, the Danish Olympic Committee does not include the Paralympic team; therefore, Denmark’s Paralympic team has its own national committee.
“Danish Paralympians are still fighting to be recognized in the Danish sports community. We have to fundraise to pay the athletes to prepare and go to Paralympics, the last four years it has been even more difficult to get the funds. Main goal would be for DPC and DOC could be once organization as both Olympic and Paralympic athletes could benefit from each other,” said Andersen.
Not only are the disabled trying to be recognized by the Danish Olympic Community, but disabled women are just trying to be recognized by the Danish sports community in general. Women are very much the minority when it comes to the sports community, and almost even more so in the disabled sports community.
“The number of women with a disability is very low. Therefore, the fact that we are not many is a barrier itself. I personally have never felt any huge issues. However, as a woman with a disability in sport you have to be strong enough to cope in male dominated environment,” said Andersen.
Still a Ways to Go
Anne knows she is lucky to be a Dane. “Denmark is a good country and we Danes are very lucky. We pay a lot in tax and instead we get free education, healthcare etc.,” explains Andersen. “We are one of the leading countries when it comes to taking care of the environment. Us Danes are taking it for granted and do not appreciate enough.”
It would seem Andersen’s fellow countrymen agree. A 156-nation survey published in 2015 by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network found that Denmark’s population is the third-happiest in the world, due much in part to the way their government operates. Despite the country’s progressive attitude towards many social issues, Andersen feels that little has changed in the government since she was a child.
“I feel where the UK and other countries has moved a long way; we have gone on as always. We discuss the same issues repeatedly,” says Andersen. “For example, the number of people with a disability in jobs are the same low number as in 2000; issues in the education sector are the same.”
Andersen knows firsthand the difficulty gaining employment as a disabled person as she faced significant hurdles when she first tried to break into the athletics industry, due in part to government policies in place at the time.
“…I knew getting a job in [the sports] industry would be very difficult. Denmark had at the time just launched the government job scheme program, and there was a trend that all disabled people should work part of this scheme and not on equal basis as everyone else,” Andersen explains.
Despite this, Andersen says that the Danish government has made strides in its treatment of people with disabilities in areas like healthcare and education accommodation, even though there is still room to improve.
“Inclusion when it comes to access to physical education, sport and other after-school activities could be better,” she says. “[We also need] more support and choices when it comes to education and work opportunities.”
