Specialized Adapted Seating

Adapted seating for severely disabled individuals has been a subject of increasing concern. Inappropriate seating of severely afflicted individuals can result in severe scoliosis with vertebral rotation. Severe contractures may result from fixed postures in a wheel­chair. To avoid this, extensive adaptations of the chair may be necessary. Hundertmark indicates that the anterior and posterior tilt of the pelvis and the verti­cal angle of the backrest are important considerations in achieving therapeutic seating for the severely multihandicapped person.

Adapted Sports Activity

Physically handicapped persons should develop skills that can be expressed in recreational activity' in the community. One of the desired outcomes of the ac­quisition of sport skills is participation in competitive sports. Therefore, the instruction in the physical ed­ucation program should match opportunities for sport participation in the community. The generaliza­tion of the sport skills acquired by the physically handicapped in the instructional phase of the physi­cal education program requires close study of several variables. Some considerations might be the nature of the specific disability, the equipment required for participation (wheelchairs and ancillary equipment), and ways of structuring competition to maximize ful­fillment for the individual.

Opportunities for Participation

Physically handicapped persons need opportuni­ties to express attained sport skills in competition. Many public schools have limited numbers of physi­cally handicapped persons of similar ages and ability. This makes organized competition difficult. There­fore, cooperative efforts need to be made among schools to provide opportunities for competition among the athletes. Special Olympics, in some states, provides this opportunity. Wheelchair sports events are staged for competition. Several colleges and uni­versities have intercollegiate wheelchair sports pro­grams. The University of Illinois has developed one of the best intercollegiate wheelchair sports pro­grams. Several other universities also have well-de­veloped intercollegiate athletic programs.

There are two national organizations for wheel­chair sports – the National Wheelchair Athletic Asso­ciation and the National Wheelchair Basketball Asso­ciation. The mission of both of these organizations is to promote competition in which persons confined to wheelchairs may participate. These organizations provide a forum and incentive to maximize proficiency in sports for competition. Higher forms of competition may be expressed at the International Sports Organization for the Disabled. Thus opportu­nities exist for many physically disabled individuals to participate in competitive sports at their ability-level with incentive to increase skills to a world-class level.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16