SPORT PARTICIPATION AND FACILITIES AS PREDICTORS OF MARKETABLE SKILLS IN SPORT FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITY IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

It is alarming to suspect that no University has provision for people with disability in terms of accessible sport facilities and motivation for participation as perceived by Nigerian University students with disabilities. This was conceptualized as a great discrimination, exclusion and wastage of potentials especially for economic skill in sport. To provide empirical prove of the interest and potential of students with disabilities in marketable skills in sport, a survey of 60 purposively selected students with disability were carried out in three Universities to investigate how participation and access to facilities predict their marketable skills in sport. Data was collected using Sport Marketable Skills Scale (SMSS- reliability = .071) and Facilities and Participation Questionnaire (FPQ- reliability = .80). Data collected was analyzed using multiple regression statistic and findings show that participation and@ facilities are significant predictor (F_{(2, 57)} = 186.34 and p < .05) and accounted for 48% of marketable skills in sport among the students. It was recommended that sport for persons with disability be established in the Universities consequently, sport facilities be expanded to ensure access and participation of persons with disabilities so as to give them optimum development of marketable and social skills advocated in the global inclusion.