There’s a wheelchair basketball game on the switch 2 and it got me wondering on the ethics. Realistically, a couple able-bodied people to fill out a team or populate a league would be pretty useful.
Obviously you wouldn’t be allowed to use them, and there’s weight distribution differences, but that seems surmountable.
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The post titles on this subreddit are unintentionally hilarious
In the special Olympics at least, wheelchair players arent all strictly wheelchair bound just in some way impaired. For example, I walk with forearms crutches and I could be on a wheelchair basketball team (if i had any athletic talent lol).
https://www.paralympic.org/wheelchair-basketball
You’re working on an ableist assumption and stereotype that an “able-bodied” person could benefit a disabled person… in this case, that a nondisabled person could be used to benefit a disabled team when that disabled team isn’t even asking you in the first place. IMO would be pretty fucked up to play wheelchair basketball if you didn’t need a wheelchair or other similar mobility aid in your daily life. Wheelchairs provide independence and freedom and allow people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to… like, play basketball for one.
Bonus points for doing it in blackface, lol
why wouldn’t they just play basketball.
the whole point of wheelchair basketball is for disabled folks, wheelchair users, to be able to play the game they love, with each other.
it would be pretty shitty for a bunch of abled people to take over their sportsball, bud.
Wheelchair users are much better at using wheelchairs than people who aren’t used to them. It takes a lot of strength and a lot of practice. You COULD have able-bodied people play, but…they wouldn’t be as good.
I would think it highly depends on intention and how the rest of the players feel. If you had a friend who used a wheelchair wanted to invite you to a game. Totally makes sense. Fill in for a league makes sense. Also a lot of people who use wheelchairs have legs and can use them for short spurts and there wouldn’t necessarily be weight distribution differences.
But also I’m an able bodied person so I can’t speak for the players you’re playing with.
In the paralympics they will use blindfolds for vision impaired categories so there is an equal playing field because even if people are considered legally blind some people might be able to see partially.
Yes, able-bodied people can play wheelchair basketball. Google “reverse integration”.
Here’s one study about it:
reverse integration in sport
From that link:
“…it was reported that reverse integration led to an increased mutual understanding of the impact of (dis)ability. All participants reported positive experiences and supported able-bodied involvement, suggesting that able-bodied players play a key role and help to grow the sport locally…”
I don’t know about wheelchair basketball, but if I remember correctly for competitive wheelchair tennis, this is not allowed.
I can see the rules being different for basketball than for tennis since you might need more players to round out a team (don’t really have that for tennis)
The disabilites are different. There are points assigned to different levels of disability. Players with the most severe disabilities (e.g. only being able to move one’s arms but unable to rotate the torso) are 1-point players, while players with more control over their body get up to 4.5 points assigned. Maximum of 14 points are allowed on the court.
Players without disabilities are not currently allowed in international competition. They are allowed in some national competitions. In those cases they get either 4.5 or 5.0 points assigned, which means it’s impossible to have more than 2 non-disabled players playing simultaneously or otherwise the 14 point total will be exceeded.
> Realistically, a couple able-bodied people to fill out a team or populate a league would be pretty useful.
Yes, that’s exactly the point. And there’s nothing wrong with it.
See the tables in this article for player opinions: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9915882/