What are some of the common misconceptions people have about wheelchair sports?
I think that the first thing they think of when they see someone with a disability is their disability. So it’s hard to actually get over that hurdle. But I think for anybody who actually comes to a practice or sees a competition, it dispels a lot of those misconceptions almost immediately. … It’s still an uphill battle to get the education out there and to get that exposure out there. Are the sports chairs different from everyday wheelchairs? As far as chairs go, it’s always changing; it’s always a continual battle to try to figure out how we can make things better. So we’ve got the basketball chairs that are usually sturdier, but they’re still designed for maneuverability, and also for impact. Although basketball is a nonimpact sport, there’s a lot of contact in basketball. Then you take the racing chairs – they’re built for no contact, with aerodynamics. So you’re going to have a lot of different variations (of wheelchairs). … For every sport there’s a difference in the chairs f
