Disabled Player

A wheelchair user planning a Saturday game needs to know — before leaving home — whether they can get from the car park to the playing area, whether the gravel surface will allow rolling, whether a transfer to a playing chair is needed, whether the toilet has the right space and grab bars. A vague mention of accessible on a club website is not enough; lived experience demands concrete detail.

Today these details are gathered by phone call, by personal visit or by trusting word-of-mouth in disability communities. A verified, structured dataset transforms the planning process from anxious to confident.

Boulodrome Accessibility Info captures structured fields for every venue: ramp gradient, surface firmness rating, parking with accessible bays, accessible toilet with measurements, lighting, indoor/outdoor, presence of adapted equipment, contact for advance arrangement. Data is verified by club operators, supplemented by user reports and visibly timestamped.

Filters allow the player to see only venues meeting their specific needs.

Rules around adaptations vary: some federations allow rampes de lancer, others restrict them to specific categories; some permit a seated thrower; some allow a helper to position the launcher. A player travelling to compete in another region or tenant needs to know what is permitted before the morning of the match.

Discovering at the entrance that an adaptation will not be allowed turns months of preparation into an immediate withdrawal. Clear, current documentation is fundamental fairness — and demonstrates that the federation takes adapted competition seriously.

Each tenant publishes its adapted-pétanque rules and permitted equipment in a structured, searchable format linked from every adapted-eligible competition. Adapted Competition Finder tags each tournament with the specific rule set that applies, the adaptations permitted, helper rules and any pre-event notification requirements.

A player's profile stores their declared adaptations for fast verification at registration.

Adapted players are geographically dispersed and often the only adapted player in their home club. Practical knowledge — which boulodromes are genuinely accessible, where to source a quality launcher, how to manage long competition days with chronic pain — lives inside the community, not in any official document.

A connected community accelerates everyone. It also addresses isolation: the difference between feeling included as a token and feeling part of an identifiable, supportive group is profound and decides whether a player keeps showing up.

The Community space hosts adapted-player groups by region and federation, with discussion threads, equipment marketplaces, advice exchanges and event coordination. Adapted Competition Finder feeds the group with relevant tournaments.

Community moderation respects accessibility-by-default — screen-reader optimised, transcripts on video posts, image alt-text required.