Breaking down barriers that stop disabled people gaining acceptance in the mainstream community starts at a young age; local communities all over Australia are using the sporting fields to connect their young players with disabled kids – and it works a treat.

Two soccer teams took the field up at Sutherland in suburban Sydney one Saturday last month; the Gymea United 14Ds were pitted against the Sutherland Titans – and everyone knew the Titans would win.

The lads from Gymea were pretty nervous at the start, but were soon put at ease with a welcoming handshake from the Titan’s star striker, Samantha – a blonde powerhouse with loads of personality.

The Titans’ goalie and two midfielders have Down’s Syndrome and a couple of other players have autism.

“It can be quite intimidating for the mainstream kids from the other clubs, they don’t know what to expect when they first meet the Titans,” says the Titans’ club President and founder, Stewart Teal.

“There’s a lot of people in the general community who just have no understanding about people with special needs,” he says.

“One of the first teams who played against the Titans didn’t know what to do when one of the Titans collapsed and had a fit in the middle of the field. We explained to them that happened to this kid a few times a day, every day. They were all just blown away by that.”

Teal is a soccer fan; he’s played the game for years and is heavily involved in running a suburban soccer club, Gymea United, which has more than 100 teams.

In his day job, Teal drives a taxi for disabled people – which gives him plenty of time to think, he says. And a few years back, Teal got to thinking about how to get his youngest daughter, Keira, playing soccer.

Keira is a special needs child; and Teal had realised years ago that Keira and other disabled kids would get lost in a big mainstream soccer club, like the one he was running.

A few football sides around Sydney had organised teams of disabled kids to play against each other; but Teal had a grander vision: teams of disabled kids taking on the straight soccer teams, in a competition with modified rules.

Teal’s plan involved breaking down some pretty sturdy barriers to encourage a better cross-over between disabled kids and the general community.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians have grown up with a kid with a disability in the family. And most of them have faced the “freak-out” factor: many people in the community just don’t have anything to do with people with disabilities – and they really don’t know how to communicate with them.

Even though public primary schools are integrated, it can be difficult for children with special needs to find common ground with the rest of the schoolkids.

“Football can break down all sorts of barriers between people,” Teal says.

The Titans have been going for three years now – and though they leave their footy boots behind when they go to school each Monday, the Titans all walk a little taller when a kid who played them on the weekend recognises them in the playground and gives them a wave.

And for the “normal” kids who play against the Titans – and usually contrive to lose – the weekend game brings a life lesson of a magnitude they may never otherwise experience.

According to the World Health Organisation (1994), about 156 million people, or three percent of the world's population, have intellectual disabilities.

Intellectual disabilities has no boundaries. It cuts across the lines of racial, ethnic, educational, social, and economical backgrounds. It can occur in any family. One out of 10 American families is directly affected by mental retardation.

Intellectual disabilities can be caused by any condition that impairs development of the brain before birth, during birth, or in childhood years. Several hundred causes have been discovered, but in one-third of the people affected the cause remains unknown.

After the second World War, organised sports with modified rules became a key part of the rehabilitation program for tens of thousands of injured ex-servicemen and by 1948, a sports competition had sprung up for wheelchair athletes at the same time as the Olympics.

This eventually evolved into the Paralympic Games. By the 1960s, sport was recognised as being a great therapy (and fun) for people who have intellectual disabilities and the first Special Olympics was held in 1968.

More information:

• Federal information service on recreation, tourism, sport and the arts for people with disabilities

• Down Syndrome NSW – Sports

• Sutherland Titans