The Difference Between Mobility Scooters And Electric Wheelchairs

Living in a complicated, modern, technologicallywheelchair basketball champions begin to steal the
advanced and digitally revolutionised era, we havelimelight of world sports. The first wheelchair basketball
seen the more complex devices produced to thegame was founded in the USA of 1944, which was
simplest of equipments improve in quality andtaken part by World War II veterans. This then spread
functionality. From IPods to Mobile phones, through toacross the globe with thousands of people taking part
stair lifts and electric wheelchairs we have certainlyand spotting. This was also very quickly incorporated
made things much easier for ourselves in terms ofwith the Paralympics, which was established at the
communication, entertainment and mobility. It is nosame time by Ludwig Guttmann in England.
surprise that those less physical able to move aroundWheelchair tennis was a sport that developed also in
independently have seen vast improvements in mobilitythe USA and was founded around the late 1970s. This
devices and aids.was not an easy development and required much
One of the more common and still modern mobilitymore experimenting with optimising the wheelchair with
equipments is the mobility scooter, wheel chairs andplaying tennis. The founder of wheelchair tennis was a
electric scooter, which is not only a device for easyyoung man named Brad Parks, who upon making a
manoeuvring but also a good device for playing sports.warm up jump on acrobatic skiing, injured himself and
Of course, you cannot play basketball or tennis withwas made paraplegic.
large mobility scooters; however, you can take part inBeing a wheelchair user he experimented with playing
many major sporting activities using a manualtennis from his wheelchair upon hearing that athlete
wheelchair. Top Paralympics athletes have shownJeff Minnenbraker had been playing tennis from a
impressive techniques to using a wheelchair whenwheelchair. This sparked a strong interest for Parks
playing things like basketball, tennis and racing.and on his next rehabilitation session coincidently his
Mobility scooters should not be mistaken with electrictherapist was Minnenbraker. They discussed playing
wheelchairs, as they are two of different equipments.tennis and this ensued with Minnenbraker providing
The only similarity is their ability to aid in manoeuvrability,Parks with tennis lessons. It became quickly obvious to
however one is used more for internal use and theParks that a lightweight wheelchair was needed to
other is best used outside and for long distanceplay tennis and so they began developing design ideas.
travelling. These are not suitable for major sports andThough this was a process, which took time, it soon
are only used for the sole purpose of migrating fromgained much popularity and attracted fellow wheelchair
one area to another.users to take part. Eventually this became a global
Mobility scooters, although used only for moving andactivity with the National Foundation of Wheelchair
travelling long distances, are much slower and areTennis being founded in 1980. Since then this has
good for people with weak upper body strength andbecome a popular sporting event, with competitions
physical disabilities in the legs. It is useful for people toheld every year. The International Wheelchair Tennis
use these for low key sporting activities such as golf,Federation was founded in 1989 with Brad Parks as
that require very little in mobility strength and is a lightthe President of the project.
form of exercise. High impact sports is unsuitableSporting events such as these have made it possible
mobility scooter users.for people with physical disabilities to feel more in
Wheelchair sports has grown to a massive scale,control and independent.
holding Paralympics sporting competitions and seeing