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Therapeutic bodily assistive devices and paralympic athlete expectations in winter sport
1Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. gwolbrin@ucalgary.ca
Objective:
To ascertain the impact of therapeutic bodily assistive devices that enable beyond-the-normal body abilities on sport in general and the Paralympics and Olympics in particular.
Design:
Cross-sectional survey.
Setting:
Online.
Participants:
Members of the National Council on Rehabilitation Education (United States). Distribution of online survey link to membership.
Assessment Of Risk Factors:
The survey used a combination of 37 simple yes or no, Likert scale, and opinion rating scale questions. This article is based on 4 of the 37 questions that focus on the impact of therapeutic enhancements on various aspects of sport.
Main Outcome Measures:
Whether respondents felt that there is an impact of therapeutic bodily assistive devices that enable beyond-the-normal body abilities on the participation of people with disabilities in sport of all levels and the self-identity of athletes with disabilities. Secondary outcome measure was what the respondents felt the impact may be.
Results:
The respondents indicated that therapeutic bodily assistive devices, which enable beyond-the-normal body abilities, will have an impact on participation of people with disabilities in sport at all levels and on the self-identity of athletes with disabilities.
Conclusions:
Given the result that the respondents felt that therapeutic enhancements will impact various aspects of sport, it may be prudent to initiate a broader discourse around therapeutic enhancement and to revise codes of ethics so that they give guidance on this topic.
