Martin Block

Keynote speaker

Martin Block

University of Virginia, United States of America

Martin Block is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Virginia where he teaches courses in adapted physical education and motor development. He has worked at the University of Virginia since 1992, and he currently serves as the director of the masters and doctoral programs in Kinesiology for Individuals with Disabilities.

Professor Block is internationally known for his work on including children with disabilities in general physical education. More recently his research has expanded to focus on physical activity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Professor Block is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books, most notably his textbook, A Teachers’ Guide to Including Students with Disabilities in General Physical Education (now in its 4th edition), and Developmental and Adapted Physical Activity Assessment (now in its 2nd edition). Professor Block also was a consultant with Special Olympics, Inc., from 1988-2000, where he was the primary author of the Motor Activities Training Program (MATP), a sports program for athletes with severe disabilities. He has been the Editor of the Journal Palaestra, and he is Past-president of the International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity (IFAPA).

Brett Smith

Keynote speaker

Brett Smith

Durham University, United Kingdom

Brett Smith is Director of Research and Professor of Disability and Physical Activity at Durham University.

Brett’s extensively funded research focuses on disability, physical activity, sport, and health. It combines thinking from psychology, sociology, public health, and critical disability studies. It also is often co-produced. Brett is also internationally recognised as a methodologist in qualitative research. He has a particular interest in narrative inquiry, rigor, and arts-based research. Brett is the co-founder and President of the International Society of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise. He is also the founder and former Editor of Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. Currently he serves as an Associate Editor of Psychology of Sport and Exercise and was previously the Associate Editor of Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology for qualitative research. Over his career he served on the Editorial Board of 15 journals, including Qualitative Research in Psychology, Disability & Society, and Sociology of Sport Journal.

Brett has over 200 publications. These include articles in Health Psychology, Sociology of Health and Ilness, Social Science and Medicine, and the Lancet. He is regularly invited to give keynotes at international conferences and workshops on qualitative research. Brett is an appointed core member of the new UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) Physical Activity Expert Committee for Communications, where he provides expertise on disability, messaging, and co-production. Prior to this, he was the Chair of the Disability and Physical Activity Expert Working Group for the 2019 CMO Physical Activity Guidelines, and an author of the report.

Yves Vanlandewijck

Keynote speaker

Yves Vanlandewijck

Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium; Department of Physiology, Nutrition and Biomechanics, School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), Stockholm, Sweden.

Yves C. Vanlandewijck is Professor in Rehabilitation Sciences at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and at the Department of Physiology, Nutrition and Biomechanics, School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), Stockholm, Sweden. His research interests include exercise physiology, biomechanics and ergonomics, applied to individuals with locomotor impairment, in a rehabilitation to elite sports continuum. His main research applications focus on the development of evidence-based classification systems in Paralympic sports to ensure fairness in athletic competition categories. Since 2014, the research unit of Prof. Yves Vanlandewijck is recognized and funded by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as the Research & Development Centre for Classification in Athletes with Intellectual Impairment.

From 1997 to 2001, Prof. Yves Vanlandewijck was the vice-president of the International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity; he is the founding editor of the European Journal of Adapted Physical Activity and the editor of the IOC Series Books “The Paralympic Athlete” (2011) and “Training & Coaching the Paralympic Athlete” (2016). He was a member of the IOC Medical and Scientific Working Group and member of the Associations Board of the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education. He is a member of the Sport Science Committee of the IPC since 1995 and Chairperson from 2003 to 2018.

Raúl Reina

Invited speaker

Raúl Reina

Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Spain

Raúl Reina is Full Professor of Adapted Physical Activity in the bachelors on Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and Occupational Therapy, and Vice-Rector on Inclusion, Sustainability and Sports in the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH). He is a researcher at the Sports Research Center of the UMH and a member of the research group on motor control and learning. His research interest is focused on classification in para-sports for exploring the relationships between physical impairments and activity limitation when performing sports skills to develop evidence-based and sport-specific classification systems. In addition, he has several projects on training programs for in-service physical education to improve their self-efficacy to include students with special education needs. He is also Classification Director of the International Cerebral Palsy Football Federation, International Classification for World Para Athletics, and Director of the Classification Commission of the Spanish Paralympic Committee.

Guilherme Furtado

Invited speaker

Guilherme Furtado

Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico da Guarda

Guilherme Furtado has a Ph.D. in Physical Activity and Health at the University of Coimbra (FCDEF-UC) and expertise in long-term exercise programs applied to geriatric and clinical populations. Currently, he is a technical-scientific coordinator at the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda - Research Unit for Inland Development (UDI) in exercise, health and well-being scope. Guilherme is also part of the Sports and Physical Activity Research Unit (CIDAF) - University of Coimbra (Portugal) - as a collaborating researcher focused on the regular physical exercise effects on mental health, biochemical parameters of immunological and hormonal response, and functional capacity in frail individuals.

Astrid Nyquist

Invited speaker

Astrid Nyquist

Beitostølen Healthsports Centre, Beitostølen, Norway

Astrid Nyquist (PhD) is the director of the Beitostølen Healthsports Center (BHC) in Norway. She has been connected to the Center since 1987, first as a student and then since 1992 as an employee. BHC is a non-profit foundation that channels all its resources to the promotion of adapted physical activity and rehabilitation, especially in children with and without disabilities, an area in which they are considered leaders. Activity and participation that focus on opportunities instead of constraints will always be an important guiding principle for the establishment. BHC combines the use of adapted physical activity with medical, educational and social guidance and follow-up.The BHC has 130 professionals and about 250 students who have several weeks of practice providing adequate response to around 850 users each year.

The Healthsports Center has agreements with the health associations in Norway and are open for users from all over the country. The Center integrates different national and international networks, being equally an attractive institution for those who do research in these areas.

BHC has gained solid expertise in activity aids through long and comprehensive experience with the use of aids during the daily activity offer. Adaptation of activity aids plays an increasingly important role in achieving activity and participation in step with community development, new activity trends and technological developments. Functional assessment, trying out equipment and training in the use of equipment and aids for those who wish to do so, is provided as part of the stay at BHC.

Kitrina Douglas

Invited speaker

Kitrina Douglas

University of West London, United Kingdom

Kitrina Douglas is an award winning researcher whose work spans the arts, humanities and social sciences. Since her first degree (a BSc (Hons) in Exercise & Sport Sciences from the University of Exeter) Kitrina has sought to developed research that is democratic, accessible to lay and public audiences, that challenge stigma and discrimination - especially in areas surrounding mental health and illness. As such her work is published as films, documentaries, poems, songs, stories and musical theatre, as well as textual publications in traditional academic peer reviewed journals and news media.

With David Carless she is co-author of 'Sport and Physical Activity for Mental Health' and 'Life story research in sport: A narrative approach to understanding the experiences of elite and professional athletes' (Routledge) and they are in the process of finishing their third academic book (due 2022) Doing Arts Based Research, to be published by Routledge. They also produce and present together the online series of programmes called, “Qualitative Conversations” available on youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkWCTy8bNOY6JlvX_yg-Uig . Kitrina has carried out research for a variety of agencies and organisations including the Department of Health, NHS Trusts, UK Sport, the Women’s Sport & Fitness Foundation and the Addiction Recovery Agency and at Leeds Beckett University for the Royal British Legion and the Youth Hostel Association. In 2014 Kitrina Douglas won Research of the Year and in 2019 the award for Innovation & Enterprise. She has a visiting Professorship from the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

David Rodrigues

Invited speaker

David Rodrigues

University of Lisbon, Portugal

David Rodrigues is a Professor of Special Education that obtained his PhD and his title of "Agregado" from the University of Lisbon. He has taught in several Portuguese and foreign universities in Belgium, Brazil, China and ended his teaching career in 2015 as Full Professor. David has worked in international projects for UNESCO, UNICEF and Humanité & Inclusion on Human Rights and Social and Educational Inclusion. He is a guest lecturer in many countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America. He has published 32 books and dozens of articles in specialized journals. He is founder and president of the NGO Pró-Inclusão (2008-2020) and director of the Journal "Educação Inclusiva". In 2017 he received the "International Leadership Excellence Award" from the Council for Exceptional Children - DISES (USA) and in 2020 he was awarded the Gold Medal of Human Rights by the Portuguese Parliament. Since June 2015, he has been a National Advisor on Education.

Thomas Abel

Invited speaker

Thomas Abel

University of Cologne, Germany

Graduate Degree in Sport Sciences and Special Education German Sport University and the Faculty of Rehabilitation Pedagogy of the University of Cologne. Doctorate Degree in Sports Medicine/Rehabilitation. 2001- 2003 lecturer at the Institute of Sports Medicine, since 2003 senior lecturer at the Institute of Movement- and Neurosciences. Since 2009 Vice Head of Institute. Univ.-Prof. 'Paralympic Sport' since 2014, actual Vice-Rector Communication Digitisation and Diversity of the German Sport University Cologne.

For 20 years Thomas worked together with elite Paralympic athletes in different sports beneath several medallists at international competitions including Paralympics. Founder member of the European Research Group in Disability Sport. At the German Sport University, responsible for coordinating the area of disability sports. Representative of the rectorate for students with a disability. Member of the National Paralympic Committee (Medical Commission).

Amândio Santos

Invited speaker

Amândio Santos

University of Coimbra, Portugal

Graduate Degree in Sport Sciences and Physical Education in Portugal Human Motor Skills of the Technical University of Lisbon. Master’s degree in Children and Youth training in Portugal Faculty of Sport at the University of Porto. Doctorate Degree in Sports Exercise Physiology at the University of Coimbra and University of Exeter in the UK. Lecturer of Exercise Physiology and Exercise Prescription at the at the faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education at the University of Coimbra since 1995. For 12 years I have assumed the role of physiologist of the Portuguese athletics federation, having accompanied all marathon athletes including the Paralympic athletes. I have also collaborated with the canoeing and cycling federations in the evaluation and control of training in elite athletes.