Why We Should Care About Inclusivity in SportsHCI

Participation and access to sports remains unequally distributed, despite the many benefits for health and wellbeing, with intersecting barriers including age, gender, ability, race, body size, responsibilities, and cultural norms, impacting access. Sports technologies, and the field of SportsHCI more broadly, have the potential to help broaden participation, yet reinforce inequalities by prioritising performance metrics and assuming normative user assumptions. This paper argues for a more inclusive and equitable SportsHCI, foregrounding the “everyday athlete” by examining the benefits and barriers to participation in sports, and how these related to the design of sports technologies. Drawing on lived experience, inclusive design literature, and recent academic work, we identify issues in sports technologies and propose a five-point manifesto outlining actionable commitments, that supports a more inclusive future for SportsHCI. This paper invites researchers, designers, and industry to take up the challenge and responsibility, of shaping sport technologies that empower all.