50 Million Strong for All: Universally Designing CSPAPs to Align with APE Best Practices

Abstract

Many children in the United States fail to meet the national recommendations for daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). However, children with disabilities are more sedentary than their typically developed peers. Comprehensive school physical activity programming (CSPAP) is a whole-of-school approach to provide children with opportunities to participate in 60 minutes of daily MVPA. Meeting daily MVPA requirements is central to SHAPE America's 50 Million Strong by 2029 vision, which seeks to meet its goal by reducing diseases associated with sedentary behavior. Given the well-documented health-related fitness benefits of achieving 60 minutes of daily MVPA, it is imperative that all children, including those with disabilities, have access to programs like CSPAPs. Universal design for learning (UDL) is evidence based and ensures the inclusion of all children. The purpose of this article is to operationalize UDL in the context of CSPAPs so that all physical education professionals can collaborate to create a universally designed CSPAP that is inclusive for all.