Tallow Ra's obsession with wheelchair basketball runs deep; it's all he can talk about.

Earlier this year he even begged to stay home from a family holiday so he could keep training.

The 12-year-old plays for the Hills Hornets in Sydney, after being introduced to the sport two years ago.

"I think it's just the competitiveness and competing for something, it's really fun," Tallow said.

"It's the whole community, meeting new friends and getting to know people who are like you."

While Tallow loves sport and the new friends he's made, it's not the case for all kids. 

Allianz surveyed 189 parents of children with disabilities, and found half of them drop out of school sport before the age of 11.

This could be due to the expense of specialist equipment, inaccessible venues, or even anxiety about participating, especially in mainstream sport.

Retired Paralympian Gerry Hewson acknowledges the challenges children and their families face staying in sport.

"The question I would like to ask is how many kids don't have access to sport?" he said.

Barriers to participation

One in five Australians live with disability, with an estimated 24 per cent of them participating in sport at least once a week.

This figure is in stark contrast to the overall sports participation of 41 per cent of non-disabled Australians.

According to Paralympics Australia, three in four disabled people want to play sport, but face barriers to participation.

These barriers particularly impact school-aged children who live with disabilities, like Tallow.

With families already struggling with the cost-of-living pressures, paying for sport beyond club fees can be one of the biggest barriers, with sports wheelchairs costing anywhere between $5,000 and $15,000.

Hewson, who won gold with the Australian men's wheelchair basketball team at the 1996 Paralympics, says expensive equipment is a big thing, especially if you have children wanting to compete in multiple wheelchair sports requiring different types of chairs.

For many parents, like Tallow's mum Sua Ra, it isn't just the cost of equipment, but also the time it can take for busy families to get to accessible training venues.

"Often, we have to drive quite a distance, up to an hour, just to go to training, which obviously not everyone can do," she said.

Disabled children can become more aware of their impairments as they enter their teen years, which can lead to some children feeling anxious about participating in sport alongside non-disabled peers.

It's a feeling dual summer and winter Paralympian Rae Anderson can relate to. 

"As a child, I wasn't quite aware of how different I was because of my disability," she said.

Vision for the future

Hewson says the landscape needs to be changed to encourage children with disabilities to take up and stay in sport, including making venues more accessible, and education for coaches and teachers in mainstream and school sports, so that children with disabilities can play with their non-disabled peers and feel a sense of belonging.

He says it's about being adaptable as a coach and being open to including disabled people.

"It's just kind of looking outside the box, and saying, 'well, okay, you can do this, but oh, you can't do that, we'll find a way around that,'" he said.

For Hewson it also comes down to equity of funding between Para and mainstream sports and strengthening pathways to elite sport.

Lack of funding has been an ongoing issue for many Para sports, particularly those that do require expensive equipment for athletes to participate.

Inspiration and support to pursue sport is also key, so disabled children can see what is possible.

"Kids with disabilities need heroes too," Hewson said.

"We probably need to focus on finding those heroes, so kids can get in there, have fun, and try and achieve."

For parents, like Ms Ra, it is the social benefits and growth of her son's confidence that have been most important.

"For Tallow, [it's about] not feeling like he's different from anyone else, and just normalising the fact that there's kids with disabilities and they can play sports too," she said.

And for Tallow, it is all the friends he has made in wheelchair basketball that keep driving him back to the court.

"When more people join the sport, it makes the sport brighter and thrive," he said.