Persons with disability have come a long way- from concerns with mere survival to opportunity for Paralympic glory. Today, the study of adapted physical education and adapted physical activity, supported by principles of inclusion, is opening doors to a wide range of practices and opportunities for people with physical and mental disabilities and for the burgeoning aging population. In Adapted Physical Activity, established researchers and experienced service providers examine sport, physical activity, recreation and physical education from sociocultural, psychological and functional (biological) perspectives. This textbook encourages readers to adopt a critical thinking approach to issues of inclusion, functional description and adaptations, physical activity and rehabilitation, adapted physical education, active living, physical activity in community settings, elite sport and technology. Adapted Physical Activity prepares practitioners and students to discuss, from a philosophical perspective, the development and state of physical activity opportunities across the continuum of school physical education, community recreation, and elite sport. Future leaders and thinkers in the field of adapted physical activity will be able to synthesize these materials to gain a perspective of the variety of forces, influences, and movements that have taken persons with disabilities from abandonment, obscurity, persecution and segregation towards their full inclusion and participation in society. Dr. Robert (Bob) Steadward , O.C., LL.D. (Hons), is Past and Founding President of the International Paralympic Committee, and Founder and CEO of The Steadward Centre, a multi-disability fitness, research, and lifestyle facility at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, where he is Professor Emeritus. Garry D. Wheeler is the Manager of Research and Counselling at The Steadward Centre at the University of Alberta He is a member of the International Paralympic Committee, Sport Science Committee. E. Jane Watkinson is Associate Dean (Academic) and Professor of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta. She has written numerous publications related to physical activity and children with disabilities. "Through all these years, little written material has been available on the enhancement of quality of life for people with disability through health and physical fitness, and all the benefits derived from them. Adapted Physical Activity contains an abundance of knowledge from the respective expertise of each contributing author. Our combined and unanimous purpose in preparing this book was to contribute a series of meaningful, informative, and multifaceted chapters that will be of value to undergraduate and graduate students and also to community practitioners and all interested readers." -Robert D. Steadward