Efforts to increase the number of disabled people participating in sport and help ensure that grassroots sports is more inclusive have received a £2.6m boost from Sport England.

The agency has revealed that five disability groups will share £1.1m of Lottery cash, which will be directly funded to advise and guide other organisations to create more opportunities. British Blind Sport; Cerebral Palsy Sport; Dwarf Sport Association UK; UK Deaf Sport; and British Wheelchair Sport are the five groups to receive direct investment.

An additional £1.5m of Exchequer funding has been awarded to the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) in order to accelerate its strategy to grow participation. Sport England chair Richard Lewis said: "Our goal is to get many more disabled people playing sport and we can only achieve this through a changed approach - one where sports bodies integrate the sport on offer to disabled and non-disabled people as far as possible.

"The investment we're announcing today will ensure that those on the frontline of grassroots sport have easy access to the expertise they need to make this happen."