Why Can’t You Get Wheelchair Basketball On Playstation?

Someone sent this question in to Adam Hills and his team on The Last Leg yesterday and it really got me thinking. Why can‘t you get wheelchair sports games on games consoles? Or can you? If so please do let me know.

I loved Nintendo games as a young child and teenager. I have since lost interest in them, but now that I think back, I would have loved to have been able to play wheelchair sports games on my Nintendo then. But that was the 90s, Nintendos were new and triple the size they are today, and nobody ever bothered to tell me that the Paralympics existed. Recreating them for games consoles was unthought of.

However, I see no reason why today’s children and teenagers shouldn’t be able to play wheelchair sports games on games consoles. To me this seems like wheelchair dolls and teddy bears. Just like wheelchair using kids play with dolls and teddy bears, and should be able to have these toys in wheelchairs, they also play with games consoles. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if they could see themselves on computer games?

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if non-disabled children could learn through computer games that wheelchair sport does exist? This seems particularly relevant to today’s generation who have games consoles of all makes, shapes and sizes and more interest in computer games than pretty much anything else.

Adam Hills mentioned the Olympic console games released by EA Games. He said that there should be a Paralympic version too. Of course I think this is a brilliant idea. Would anyone be interested in a campaign to get such a game, if there isn’t such a game already in the works? That sounds like a pretty good Paralympic legacy to me!