










But activists cheered the changes.


A Government Accountability Office study in 2010 found that students with disabilities participated in athletics at consistently lower rates than those without. The study also suggested the benefits of exercise among children with disabilities may be even important because they are at greater risk of being sedentary.

"We know that participation in extracurricular activities can lead to a host of really good, positive outcomes both inside and outside of the classroom," said Kareem Dale, a White House official who guides the administration's policies for disabled Americans.

Dale, who is blind, wrestled as a high school student in Chicago alongside students who had full vision.

"I was able to wrestle mainly because there was a good accommodation to allow me to have equal access and opportunity," Dale said, describing modified rules that required his competitors to keep in physical contact with him during matches.

Those types of accommodations could be a model for schools and colleges now looking to incorporate students with disabilities onto sports teams. For instance, track and field officials could use a visual cue for a deaf runner to begin a race.



"I heard about some of the other people who joined their track teams in other states. I wanted to try to do that," said 15-year-old Casey Followay, who competes on his Ohio high school track team in a racing wheelchair.



In cases where students with disabilities need more serious changes, a separate league could be required.

Although the letter is directed to elementary and secondary schools and the department hasn't provided comparable guidance to colleges, some of the principles in the letter will be read closely by administrators in higher education, said Scott Lissner, the Americans with Disabilities coordinator at Ohio State University and president of the Association on Higher Education and Disability.

"The logic that's in there applies us to us as well as it does to K-12, for the most part," Lissner said.

While slightly different portions of civil rights law apply to colleges and universities, "their approach in this letter was really more about the basic underlying equity and civil rights issues" that colleges also must ensure they're applying to pass muster under the law.

Generally, Lissner said, as colleges review their policies, the effects would more likely be felt in intramural and club sports programs on campus than intercollegiate ones, Lissner said. That's because relatively few people can meet the standards to compete in intercollegiate sports, and nothing in the guidance requires a change in such standards. But the purpose of intramural and club sports is broader, and colleges may have to do more to ensure students with disabilities aren't deprived of a chance to compete.

Some cautioned that the first few years would bring fits and starts.


Establishing students' needs would be the first step, followed by training for educators and coaches.

"We need to determine how many children would qualify and then look to where kids can be integrated onto traditional teams appropriately. Where we can't, then we need to add an adaptive program," said Vaughn, who has advised states and districts how to be more inclusive.