Life Through a Different Lens

Members of the Northeast Passage Youth Sled Hockey Team showed what it’s like to be an athlete with a disability by documenting their experiences through snapshots and captions of their everyday lives. By taking and describing pictures that chronicle their experiences, athletes are helping researchers analyze the importance of sport and recreation to individuals and the greater community.

In the research project “Through the Lens of a Camera: Exploring the Meaning of Competitive Sport Participation Among Youth Athletes with Disabilities,” eight youth sled hockey players took pictures on and off the ice over a six-week period.

"Facilitating social change and promoting inclusive opportunities requires teamwork and collaboration across disciplines," says Sara Rainer, health management and policy graduate student and project director at the UNH Institute onDisability. "When there is shared vision of health equity and cultural competence, there is opportunity for collective action."

The inter-professional College of Health and Human Services research team was co-led by Semrya Aytur, associate professor of health management and policy, and Patricia Craig, associate professor of recreation management and policy, who mentored Rainer and recreation management and policy graduate student Laura Hapke. Key members of the research team included Matt Frye, clinical assistant professor of recreation management and policy, Mark Bonica, assistant professor of health management and policy, and Matt McGilvray of Northeast Passage.

The team combined expertise to investigate and synthesize two perspectives: the public health perspective, which focuses on the multiple levels of influence that affect population health, and the therapeutic recreation perspective, which focuses on intra-personal, person-centered