Wheelchair Football: All Can Play!
For disabled individuals, finding a disability-friendly campus can be a difficult. In addition to conventional academic factors, you have to consider social amenities, accessible classrooms, adaptive recreational programs, and para-transit services, to name just a few. But what about sports?
While athletic opportunities for the disabled exist across the country, not all universities sponsor official teams or programs. Disabled individuals are often left on their own to search these out. Fortunately, a long tradition of athletic activity among individuals with physical disabilities has created opportunities in many cities across the country.
Such demanding sports as basketball, rugby, soccer, tennis, sled hockey, and track and field are among the sports disabled individuals have not only tackled, but also competed at nationally through organized leagues and club.
Perhaps the fastest growing and most popular sport, however, is wheelchair football. What is unique about wheelchair football, according to the Universal Wheelchair Football Association, is that it is the most inclusive of all sports. The rules accommodate individuals with paraplegia, quadriplegia, amputation, visual impairment, and hearing impairment, and even individuals without disabilities.
Unlike other, less publicly accessible sports, wheelchair football not only offers individuals with disabilities opportunities for greater independence, teamwork, and strength building, but can also educate and alter the perceptions of individuals without disabilities. The inclusive nature of the game creates stronger communities and relationships on campus. Since wheelchair football allows for the nondisabled individuals to participate (one must simply use a wheelchair to play), a greater sense of respect and understanding is possible.
Wheelchair sports enable individuals with disabilities more opportunities for success, the building of friendships, and personal wellness. Even if your college provides no official opportunities to compete, there may be city-wide groups already organized and playing. Or, your college administrators may be open to forming a team, but simply need someone—maybe you!—to spearhead the effort.
Daniel Todd is a freelance writer and editor living in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a frequent contributor to CityBeat, Cincinnati's arts and entertainment weekly, and is senior editor for the poetry review Smartish Pace.
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