Gym Spaces program aims to improve disabled people’s access to Auckland fitness centres

A new pilot programme called Gym Spaces aims to make fitness centres around Auckland more accessible to disabled people with new adaptive gym equipment.

After reviewing many community and private gyms in Auckland, Laura Fergusson Trust Incorporated, supported by a grant from the Perpetual Guardian Trust, chose to partner with the YMCA Lynfield in Mount Roskill to provide them with four pieces of adaptive equipment that disabled gymgoers can use.

Unveiled in September, the members of the YMCA Lynfield team have been specially trained to give instruction on how the equipment should be operated to pass on to gym users.

Heather McLeish from LFT Auckland has been a key driver behind the Gym Spaces programme, wanting to ensure that disabled people have better access to public spaces and facilities in their local communities.

She explains “it is important to us that disabled people can choose where they want to go and what they want to do to keep active, just like non-disabled people. The Gym Spaces programme is a way for us to help provide options for disabled people in their communities that they can use when and where it suits them.”

Noting that The Y is thrilled to be a part of the pilot programme and welcomes disabled patrons to the Lynfield gym, YMCA North Chief Executive, Julian Baldey stated “we are delighted to be partnering with LFT Auckland in order to increase our existing facilities for disabled gymgoers across our network and look forward to future opportunities to further support our community.”

Commenting after putting the equipment to the test, Paul Bath, who lives with a disability, advised “it’s important for gyms to have adaptive equipment because it means that disabled people like my wife and me can get back into doing things that are important to us, like keeping active, and to be able to do that somewhere that’s close to us and in the community is fantastic.”

LFT Auckland plans to support the expansion of the Gym Spaces programme into other gyms following a review of the pilot's success at the YMCA Lynfield.

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Image: Shutterstock, used for illustrative purposes only.