Idealizing Inclusion: A Framework for Physical Literacy Development in Community-Based Adapted Physical Activity...

Physical literacy (PL) is increasingly positioned as a foundation for lifelong engagement in movement and physical activity, yet less is known about how it is enacted inclusively within disability-focused community contexts. This study explored how three Canadian community-based adapted physical activity organizations operationalized PL through inclusion-oriented practice. Guided by a Communities of Practice conceptual framework and an interpretive multiple case study design, data were generated through semistructured interviews and one practitioner focus group, alongside supplementary data sources such as field observations, organizational documents, photographs, and reflexive field notes. Fifty-one participants were involved across cases, including administrators, practitioners, program participants, and parents. Cross-case thematic analysis identified three interrelated pillars shaping inclusion-oriented PL practice: environmental compatibility, intentional programming, and ethical practice. Across cases, inclusion was not understood as a fixed property of a setting but as a relational and context-sensitive process requiring ongoing adaptation of environments, pedagogies, and organizational cultures in response to participant needs, aspirations, and embodied ways of moving. The findings offer a cross-case framework of idealizations for community-based adapted physical activity programming and clarify how PL can be advanced in disability-focused contexts without reducing inclusion to access alone, accommodation alone, or normative expectations of movement competence.