Online exercise for people living with an intellectual disability.

We’re currently in the planning stages of this project. Leave your info for more details, or scroll down to learn more.

An open letter to parents, carers and support workers:

Hi, my name is Dan Williams (you can email me at dan@rangeofmotion.net.au) and I’ve got a message to share with all those amazing parents, carers and support workers out there.

I’m an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Exercise Scientist and educator. I’ve spent the last 18 years helping individuals with a disability get healthy with exercise – and I’ve made some wonderful friends along the way.

Recently, I’ve helped Developmental Disability WA design and launch a program to help increase physical activity levels in people with an intellectual disability. I’ve presented this as a workshop around Western Australia. You can watch a short clip of me presenting here.

How can we help more people?

And it got me thinking. What if there was a way to reach more of the people who need it most?

While presenting to a group of fitness professionals about reducing barriers to exercise, an idea came to me.

And if I may, I’d like to share it with you.

The idea

Here’s my vision:

• Three times a week, people living with a disability will receive a short, 10 minute video. It will be a high quality, professional studio production.
• In that video, I’ll be guiding them through a very simple, but effective exercise session. They’ll be able to work at a pace that is comfortable for them from their own living room with no equipment.
• The language will be very simple. The instructions will be very clear and calm. Easyread captions will be used, and I’ll have an Auslan Interpreter on screen.
• Plus, I’ll have an individual with a disability co-presenting with me and demonstrating all the movements in real time.
• Participants will be able to follow along on their own, or with a carer, support worker or parent.

I’m thinking the service would be available as a subscription for somewhere around $20/week, to make sure we can cover the costs of the production.

Can we make this work?

I’ll be honest with you. This project is in it’s early planning stages, but I think we can build it into something quite wonderful – a way to gently bring down the barriers to exercise for the people who need it most.

If I may, I’d like to reach out to ask for your help with three things.

• Would this subscription-based service be of interest to you or someone you love? If I can get enough interest it tells me I can go ‘all in’ to make it happen.
• We all know that this space is a complex minefield of funding, grants, NDIS and more. If you are a decision maker, or a mover and shaker in this space, I’d love to talk to you to explore partnerships, collaborations, or even just to bounce ideas off each other.
• Please would you consider sharing this page to your contacts in this space? Either industry leaders and decision makers, or people who may become users of the service. If we can spread the word, we can make it happen. Here’s the link you can share (thank you so much): rangeofmotion.net.au/iwad-online

Where to from here?

One thing I’ve learnt from nearly two decades in this space is that services like this are so desperately needed, and in drastically short supply.

Let’s change that.

If the interest is there, I’ll make this happen. My first step will be to create a ‘pilot’ episode so everyone can see what we’re capable of.

Please complete the form below to register your interest so I know this initiative is wanted 🙂

Dan, dan@rangeofmotion.net.au