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Accessible and inclusive sports facilities

Front cover of Part A of the Accessible and inclusive sports facilities guidance, featuring illustrations of people taking part in sport.

We have produced guidance for planners, designers, building owners and operators to support the design and operation of safe, welcoming, accessible and inclusive sports and leisure facilities. 

The Accessible and inclusive sports facilities (AISF) guide replaces the previous documents: Accessible Sports Facilities guidance and Access for Disabled People. 

The guide can help users to fulfil their obligations under the Equality Act (2010) by providing a framework for considering and meeting the needs of likely building users, and represents the current standard for creating and maintaining sports facilities that are accessible, inclusive and able to meet the needs of our vibrant and diverse communities. 

Our AISF guidance aims to: 

  • Increase awareness and use of inclusive design principles; 
  • Support approaches to design that can reduce or remove barriers to more being active; 
  • Encourage best-practice approaches to creating and maintaining well-designed sports and leisure facilities from point of concept through to day-to-day occupation.

The guide is available as a series of accessible documents, which you can download below. 

Part A is recommended as essential reading for any users and parts B to H cover specific aspects of accessible and inclusive design and operation.

Further reading

See our appendices for links to campaigns, initiatives, policies and tools by Sport England and other organisations in relation to accessibility and inclusion.

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