Event for Experiencing Wheelchair Basketball held at Adachi Ward School for Special Needs Education

An event for experiencing wheelchair basketball was held at the school for special needs education in Adachi Ward on June 18, 2018. With three wheelchair basketball players from PwC Japan Group as instructors, 40 students in the first to third year of high school took on the challenge.

The students started by learning how to use a wheelchair for competition. They seemed rather nervous in the beginning because this was their first time to move around in a wheelchair. However, they gradually got used to it as they moved back and forth on the basketball court. Before long, they seemed to get the knack of manipulating their wheelchairs as they learned more and more difficult skills of moving the ball by dribbling and passing according to the instructors’ advice.

Subsequently, the students played a mini game breaking into two teams. As the students scored points by shooting the ball, the cheering from spectators got louder and louder, and the game reached a climax when the instructors joined the students.

This program was designed for participants to learn to cherish various possibilities within themselves and to continue to try without quitting. The basketball court was filled with the students’ laughter from beginning to end; the program certainly contributed to promote the attraction of wheelchair basketball.

Since 2012, we have been hosting wheelchair basketball challenges at elementary schools and junior high schools in Kanto and Kansai regions with disabled "Challenged Athletes" belonging to PwC Japan Group as instructors, and approximately 1,000 elementary and junior high-school students participated last year.