Mr Ritchie Barber
School of Health & Society
Current positions
Lecturer in Physiotherapy
Biography
Ritchie Barber is a Clinical Skills Teacher in Physiotherapy at the University of Salford and a Paralympic silver medallist from the Sydney 2000 Games. His career has been shaped by lived experience as a disabled athlete, physiotherapist, and educator, driving a commitment to inclusive healthcare and performance in sport.
Ritchie combines teaching, research, and clinical practice. He has led curriculum revalidation across core physiotherapy modules, embedding inclusive pedagogy, microlearning, and decolonisation principles to enhance accessibility and clinical relevance. His teaching is underpinned by active clinical roles with national para sport programmes, including the Football Association’s Para Football initiative and wheelchair fencing, ensuring students engage with authentic elite practice.
His research focuses on musculoskeletal assessment and the reliability of upper limb strength and endurance tests. He has published in Apunts Sports Medicine and the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and is completing an MRes on force-plate methods for long-lever shoulder testing. He also co-leads qualitative studies on international placements and co-creation in education, aligning with Salford’s inclusion and globalisation priorities.
Previously Athlete Health and Physiotherapy Lead for British Para Swimming, Ritchie contributed to a 66% reduction in injury and illness and supported 73 Paralympic medals. He was awarded the Mussabini Medal for Coaching Excellence (2022) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2024).
Through his teaching, scholarship, and consultancy, Ritchie positions the University of Salford as a leader in para sport physiotherapy, advancing athlete welfare, inclusive healthcare, and student learning.
Areas of Research
Shoulder strength and endurance assessment – reliability and validity of single-joint, long-lever tests (ASH, Ehiogu, PSET) using force plate technology and isokinetic dynamometry.
Performance profiling in para sport – injury risk factors, classification integrity, and evidence-informed rehabilitation frameworks for athletes with disabilities.
Exercise prescription in physiotherapy education – embedding strength and conditioning principles into rehabilitation to address graduate confidence and competence in exercise dosage.
Inclusive and adaptive physiotherapy – lived experience, decolonisation, and culturally responsive teaching in clinical education, with a focus on para sport and neurorehabilitation.
Placement design and student experience – co-creation in physiotherapy placements, supervisor development, and international student adaptation, with an emphasis on equity, belonging, and global citizenship.
Knowledge translation between elite sport and clinical practice – integrating applied research into injury prevention, athlete welfare, and physiotherapy curricula.
Ritchie Barber is passionate about all aspects of upper limb rehabilitation and brings this focus into his teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate physiotherapy programmes. He has led successful curriculum revalidation, embedding contemporary clinical evidence, inclusive pedagogy, and culturally responsive practice into module design. His expertise ensures that students gain deep knowledge of shoulder and upper limb conditions while developing the confidence to apply evidence-based rehabilitation strategies in practice.
Ritchie places a strong emphasis on real-world learning. Drawing directly on his clinical roles in para sport and elite rehabilitation, he integrates authentic case studies, simulations, and applied examples into teaching. This approach bridges theory and practice, ensuring students graduate with the skills and adaptability to deliver person-centred care in diverse and often complex clinical environments.
He also has a special interest in microlearning as a tool to enhance engagement and accessibility. By using talking-head videos, bite-sized resources, and scaffolded tasks, he creates flexible and inclusive learning opportunities that align with Universal Design for Learning principles. Student feedback highlights the value of these approaches in making challenging content more accessible, particularly for neurodiverse learners, and in helping learners connect classroom teaching to clinical application.
Through his passion for the upper limb, commitment to real-world learning, and innovative use of microlearning, Ritchie fosters an engaging and inclusive learning environment that prepares students to meet the demands of modern physiotherapy practice.
Qualifications
-
Exploration of the Posterior Shoulder Endurance Test
2024 - 2026 -
PgCAP
2023 - 2024