Analysis of the safety and accessibility of sports facilities in Secondary School

Abstract

School sports facilities are the ideal framework where students must acquire physical activity habits, establishing Royal Decree 132/2010, that they must comply with the safety and accessibility conditions determined by current legislation. However, several previous studies warn of non-compliance with these requirements, being the objective of this study the analysis of those related to the safety and accessibility of the sports facilities used in Physical Education classes at the compulsory secondary education stage. This research was carried out in «=45 compulsory secondary education schools of public ownership of the Region of Murcia, through an in situ observation with two ad hoc checklists according to the space to be analyzed, of 71 items for indoor facilities and 36 items for outdoor ones, of dichotomous response (YES/NO), developed from the current regulations and legislation. The results show an average percentage of compliance of 63.05±7.09 in indoor facilities («=51) and 61.52±8.70 in outdoor spaces (n=93) detecting statistically significant differences in the indoor ones (p <0.05) depending on their ownership, with greater compliance in the municipal. None of the sports facilities analyzed meets all the established requirements, detecting numerous deficiencies regarding their safety that may entail risks, as well as in relation to their accessibility, appreciating architectural barriers and a high breach of the aspects related to cognitive accessibility and visual limitations.