Disability and Misfitting in Sport and Physical Activity

Misfitting is a feminist disability studies concept that describes the dynamic relationship between bodies and minds, and the social, material, and cultural environments they inhabit. Rather than locating disability within individuals as internal deficits, misfitting draws attention to the ways environments, institutions, systems and social expectations are designed around particular rigid assumptions of physical, cognitive or sensory capacity, and function. In sport and physical activity contexts, misfitting provides a useful framework for understanding how inclusion and exclusion are produced through relationships between bodies, minds, spaces, policies, and cultural norms; and who is deemed as fitting or ‘misfitting’ in respective spaces.

The concept complements the social relational model of disability by highlighting how structural barriers and everyday interactions restrict participation while generating psycho-emotional consequences such as shame, self-doubt, anxiety, exhaustion and diminished belonging. Misfitting is not a fixed state but a contextual and shifting experience created when environments fail to accommodate physical, cognitive or sensory diversity. As such, it is particularly useful for understanding the experiences of disabled people and those living with chronic, fluctuating, or invisible conditions in sport and physical activity settings.

Alongside examining the production and consequences of misfitting, contemporary scholarship increasingly focuses on how sport and physical activity can be reimagined to better accommodate human diversity. Emerging approaches include flexible participation models, neuroinclusive environments, co-produced programs, and disability justice-informed practices that prioritize access, empowerment, care, and meaningful participation. These approaches shift responsibility for inclusion away from individual adaptation and towards the transformation of environments, cultures, and organizations.

Future research and practice should be increasingly concerned with understanding how experiences of belonging can be fostered within sport and physical activity settings, as well as how diverse bodies, minds, and senses can be anticipated, valued, and supported. Through this lens, misfitting serves not only as a critique of exclusion but also as a framework for imagining more inclusive and socially-just physical activity futures.