Wheelchair basketball, WTF?

[BelleClapper]

DS(9) had sports day today. He’s just come running out of school asking if we can buy a wheelchair because he’s enjoyed playing wheelchair basketball this afternoon.

I’m a bit at a loss. They 100% do not have a wheelchair user in their class. How is this an ok thing? All he’s going on about is how much fun it is and that he wants to get a wheelchair.

Am I missing something? What’s the benefit of this? This just feels like weird disability appropriation for fun. Like LARPing at being disabled.

But he’s just taken from it that wheelchairs are fun and he wants one.

And is this a terrible message in all honesty? Much better he thinks ‘wheelchairs are cool and fun to play basketball in’ than ‘oh that poor person is in a wheelchair, that’s so sad, they can’t have fun at sports’.

A lot of disability awareness stuff for children used to be based around what disabled people couldn’t do, so for example making kids wear a bind fold to do tasks. Then it was decided this actually promoted a negative attitude towards those with disabilities - making them seem ‘helpless’ etc. New research showed that things like playing wheelchair sports which promote disability things as fun, also promote a better attitude towards people with disabilities.

It probably wasn’t all spelt out to your son like that, it didn’t need to be. All he knows now is that people in wheelchairs get to play fun sports, which is a great message for a 9 year old.

@BelleClapper one of DS little mates broke their leg and had crutches when they were 9 and they were all entranced by them. There’d be a line of kids waiting to ‘have a go’ on them during lunch.

No matter how much I told him breaking your leg would be very painful and and having a cast on would be cumbersome and that crutches aren’t fun for long and rub he was still very jealous that he hadn’t broken his leg too .

I know that Fencing certainly used to include wheelchair users and non-wheelchair users up to a certain level of training and competition, as the chairs are clamped in place - I remember my mother competing in the 80's against wheelchair users, but i suspect that has also been changed now with olympic level competition being more strictly regulated and levels of disability clearly specified.

Your son has totally missed the point whether that be his interpretation or the teaching, it was probably a lesson in accessible sport just tell him that . I'm disabled and in my younger years I played some wheelchair sports ( not basketball that's madness) my able bodied peers didn't have a clue what they were, your son and class now know people who are not as able as them can play a sport suited to them.

I imagine there will be rules about whether able bodied are allowed to play for high level competition, Olympics etc but I cant see why there cant be able bodied in local teams to make up the number provided they dont take the place of a wheelchair user who wants to play.

Get him to ask if they can try murder ball next week missing the point entirely . Paralympics are in a few weeks so probably trying to get them interested in watching if they wouldn't normally be bothered.

I don't think your DS has missed the point at all. I think you need to attend a session, then take a view.

There's a wheelchair basketball club nearish to me which widely advertises that it's open to everyone not just wheelchair users.

They have enough sports wheelchairs for a two sided team, I think the thinking behind it is that they would rather have enough people, wheelchair users or not, so that any wheelchair users who do want to play have a decent club to attend.

It also opens up a sport to people who perhaps don't use a wheelchair but do have other mobility issues meaning they would struggle at traditional clubs.

I can't take offence at anything that opens up avenues for anyone who wants to be included having a chance to do so.

@BelleClapper

I mean, it’s entirely possible that DS has just missed the point. And I get the idea about normalising disability.

But he’s just taken from it that wheelchairs are fun and he wants one. It doesn’t sound like they had any sort of talk attached to it but maybe he just didn’t listen

Well surely you just explain to him why you're not buying a wheelchair.

I may be wrong, but I thought you didn't have to be a wheelcahir user to play wheelchair sports professionally? I think you just have to have a disablity that makes playing regular sports difficult or impossible.

www.dw.com/en/wheelchair-basketball-how-disabled-do-you-have-to-be/a-54406662

You don't have to be a full time wheelchair user to play wheel chair sport but you do have to have a disability.

I knew able-bodied people who used to play in wheelchair rugby. I think you were allowed so many ambled people per team.

@moynomore

It's to raise awareness and show children that being in a wheelchair doesn't mean people with disabilities can't do lots of cool things too. YABU.

Yes, this. It's a good thing. YABU.

My son's a fencer. There's one adult fencer at our club who uses a wheelchair: he's a paralympian and needs to train regularly, but it's a fairly niche sport, so several of the coaches and older fencers have learned wheelchair fencing so they can spar with him. Anything that opens up inclusivity in sport has to be a good thing.

Or maybe they were making up numbers

It might also be a good idea to get him to watch some matches on youtube, that sport is brutal

My kids had a wheelchair user visit the school recently to show some wheelchair basketball. They thought it was cool but didn't come home wanting a wheelchair though.. I'm not sure that's the intended message.

I think this is a great thing. Clearly not designed to get kids to beg their kids for wheelchairs but even if it does then the same kids clearly had a think about what wheelchair users can do rather than can’t do. Sounds like a good thing to me.

It’s odd, but to me, you sound disproportionately outraged at something that is so inconsequential. That might just be my impression though. Nothing wrong with it really, it’s a good way to experience the bits the lives of people less fortunate

My cousin has a physical disability and uses crutches to help her walk. When I was your son's age, we used to race up and down her garden. I used a spare pair of crutches and can vividly remember how much faster I could go using them. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs.

I guess if someone had offered me a set of crutches at the time, I might have been quite pleased. I can confidently say it didn't make me grow up wishing I couldn't walk without aids. Quite the opposite - it made me realise that nothing was going to hold my cousin back and her disability was not going to stop her having a full and fun life. And that has proved to be the case.

I'd be happy that he had a fun afternoon and try not to over-think it.

@Clumsyvolcano

It’s odd, but to me, you sound disproportionately outraged at something that is so inconsequential. That might just be my impression though. Nothing wrong with it really, it’s a good way to experience the bits the lives of people less fortunate

I’m not outraged

Just a bit unsure as to the point of the messaging.

But I take on board that any positive views of disabilities are great, and yes it’s good to normalise it. I was just a bit WTF when he came out of school loudly asking to buy a wheelchair.

My partner plays wheelchair rugby league and basketball, rugby for his country. He isn't a wheelchair user. its a bloody expensive sport though. Steer him in a different direction!

It's a mixed ability sport. They need able bodied people to play to keep the numbers up.

I've arranged for it to be taken into schools and colleges, all ages, over the last 30 years. There is always a hyper reaction like that, the game very quickly becomes fast, competitive and quite addictive. There are usually one or two kids who go onn to look for their local club - basketball, rugby or 'murderball'.

I get why you might feel it is appropriation but it's par for the course for most wheelchair team games. They all need more club members of all ages and abilities.

We had a lady who uses a wheel chair come to our Brownies

Posted to soon

She came to Brownies to help us with the disability awareness badge.

She brought her sports wheel chair with her and all the girls had a go. They thought it was loads of fun, and several said that they wanted one.