The sport of Bowls can be played by almost anyone, with or without a disability. It can be played by men, women and children alike. Age doesn't matter, it is a sport of skill not strength.

It can be played in many formats, singles, pairs, triples and fours. It can be played in teams of whatever number you wish. It can be played competitively at local, national and international level or it can be a social pastime, whatever you want.

Bowlers with a disability can compete with or against non-disabled bowlers in most situations. It is one of the most accessible and integrated sports readily available around the country. It is also a great sociable sport.

The structure of Bowls for people with a disability.

Each disability sports group has a national bowling squad, ie.

CP Sport - for people with Cerebral Palsy, Stroke and Head Injury.

EALABA - English Amputee and Les Autres Bowls Ass. - for amputees and all other disabilities that don't fit into the other specific organizations, ie; Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy etc.

BWBA - British Wheelchair Bowls Association - for spinal injuries and other wheelchair users.

ENAVHB - English National Association for Visually Handicapped Bowlers - for people who are blind and visually impaired.

Each of these squads, hold training weekends and fixtures throughout the year. They also run their own national championships.

In 2004 an umbrella organization specifically for bowls was formed and named 'Disability Bowls England', bringing together the four organizations for communication and selection purposes. DBE also host a 'Masters Tournament' each year for which the four member groups nominate their four top bowlers to play off over a weekend to determine the 'Master' bowler for that year.

Each of the disability groups also has an international sports organization;
CP ISRA (CP's), (ISMWSF - wheelchairs and ISOD - amputees and Les Autre) have now combined to form IWAS and IBSA (Blind). These organization's stage their own internationals when funding and a host can be found. Formally they each had co-ordinators who came together along with an athletes representative to form the IPC Bowls Sports Executive Committee. The athletes then elected a chairman from the committee.

In the 1996 at the IPC General Committee meeting held at the Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Bowls was dropped from future Paralympic Games. The criteria for the inclusion of a sport to the games had been changed, and bowls no longer qualifies. Although it is out of the Paralympic Games, it was kept in the IPC World Championship Calendar.

At the IPC World Bowls Championships in Australia 2002, a sports assembly was held and at which the Chairman put forward a motion with regard to forming a Disability World Bowls Federation, independent of the IPC, on similar lines to WWB. The assembly voted to go with the idea. A new committee was voted in to implement the procedure over the coming year or so, with the backing of the IPC.

The IPC are looking for all sports to form their own World Governing Bodies, alongside, or independently of, their non-disabled counterparts.

This at least gives sport control of the most important factors. The events will be held in countries already geared to the bowls, at venues worthy of the competition, where the skill and talent of the bowlers will determine the outcome of the game, not the surface they are playing on. Also, the competition will be run by people committed to the sport, without compromise to either the game or the participant. Unlike in the past, where the venues provided for the Paralympic competitions often left a lot to be desired when being held in countries where bowls was not a national sport. In Atlanta for example, the competition was held on an Astro-turf practice hockey pitch.

In 2007 in Sydney Australia, the first World Championships under the new flag of 'International Bowls for the Disabled' (IBD) was held. IBD is recognized by WBB as the international governing body of disability bowls.

In order to make competitions for people with disabilities as fair as possible, a new classification system has been devised, a sports specific functional system consisting of 8 classifications. Classification exists in all disability sports, not just bowls.

There is still much work to be done, but things are moving along in a positive way.

The present DBE Committee;

The present IBD Committee is as follows;