Purpose: To identify adaptive sports opportunities for individuals who use powered wheelchairs for their primary means of mobility, and to determine barriers and facilitators for new sporting opportunities.
Materials and methods: A structured literature review of the peer-reviewed scientific literature and analysis of major adaptive sport competitions information. Pubmed and Scopus were searched for the phrases "Power wheelchair sports" and "complex disability sport" to identify articles discussing competitive sport opportunities for power wheelchair users. Also, the websites and instructional materials were searched to identify what sports exist for power wheelchair users in the Paralympics, the National Veteran Wheelchair Games, the Invictus Games and the Warrior Games.
Results: Eleven articles were found from Pubmed and Scopus which met the criteria, most of which were focused on power soccer. The search for sport opportunities from the four major competitions found few events where someone using a power wheelchair could participate, most of which involve a stationary chair during competition (e.g., archery, billiards).
Conclusions: This literature review identified few programs for sports for people who use power wheelchairs. Many challenges such as lack of appropriate technology, lack of programs, and challenging classification categories all interact to contribute to this problem. Opportunities exist for better and more appropriate technology to be developed and for new and innovative sports and rules to be adopted for these athletes to benefit more from sport and recreation.Implications for rehabilitationAthletes with complex disabilities and high support needs are not provided with the same opportunities as other athletes.Challenges such as insufficient technology, lack of programs, and challenging classification categories all interact to contribute to the lack of opportunities.Opportunities exist for better and more appropriate technology to be developed and for new and innovative sports and rules to be adopted for athletes with complex disabilities and high support needs to benefit more from sport and recreation.
Keywords: Adaptive sports; disabled athletes; high support needs; power wheelchair.