Informative Speech On Wheelchair Basketball

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Are you that type of person who thinks that if a person has a disability then they cannot participate in any sports? Well, I am here to let you know that there are a lot of sports and activities that people with disabilities can participate in. One adaptive sport that I find interesting is wheelchair basketball. Wheelchair basketball started as a form of rehabilitation for the veterans of the World War II in 1946. The veterans played in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals in Birmingham, Framingham and Corona Naval Station where World War II veterans were being treated for various degrees of paralysis. The veterans competed against doctors who practiced at the Birmingham Hospital. In 1947, the Birmingham team traveled to the Corona Naval Station where they competed in the first match between two …show more content…

A player in this sport must suffer from a permanent severe leg disability or be paralyzed at the lower portion of the body. A player can also have long lasting lower disability that consistently interferes with their mobility as enumerated by an average medical examination and testing. Other conditions that may qualify a person to participate in wheelchair basketball may include but are not limited to, amputation, partial to full joint ankyloses or replacement, paralysis, and radiological evidence of limb shortening. Cerebral palsy, lower extremity amputation, permanent joint disorders, spina bifida, leg length discrepancy, and post-polio syndrome are just a few more of the disabilities that would qualify a person to play wheelchair basketball. One of the many misconceptions of wheelchair basketball is that you must use a chair for everyday mobility to play the sport. Many wheelchair basketball athletes have the ability to get up and walk without the use of their wheelchair at the end of a game or practice and walk around for the rest of the