Wheelchair Sports: A New Perspective on Integration

For decades, the integration of handicapped children and adults into the mainstream of society has been promoted as a valuable and necessary concept. With the advent of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Public Law 94-142, the trend of mainstreaming individuals with handicaps into the “normal” world has led to the termination of many special schools and special recreation programs. This manuscript explores the potential of a new technique for integrating the disabled and the nondisabled. It is hypothesized that such integration will lead to a deeper commitment to, as well as a keener insight into, the plight of the disabled individual in regard to the attitudinal and architectural barriers that are still so prevalent in our society today. It is time to truly place more of a focus upon the ability of the participant, not the disability.