Thanks to advances in technology, students with disabilities can participate in physical activities no matter their physical, mental, emotional, or social handicap or disability. With the use of assistive technology, disabled students can accomplish tasks that they may have not been originally capable of doing. One assistive technology tool that could be very useful to have my classroom is a hand cranked bicycle (handcycle). This allows students with spinal cord injuries or paralysis that are normally confined to wheel chairs to have more mobility.
Handcycling is a great upper body workout and can give the student a sense of freedom from their wheelchair. Most handcycles have three wheels, two in the back and one in the front that steers. Handcycles require strength to be powered so it encourages use of the body instead of rolling around in a wheelchair which may take less energy and be less useful when approaching the subject of physical education which requires students to be physically active.
My hope is to use handcycles in my class for students with injuries or disabilities that doesn't allow them to use their legs to sort of "keep up" with the other students during activities. For example, if I am having students run laps around the gym or outside track, I'd like to have the disabled student use the hadcycle so that they are not discluded entirely from the exercise.
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