UC Berkeley Students with and without disabilities are learning to play power soccer together in a two-unit course sponsored by education professor Derek Van Rheenan called “Disability and Sport.” Power soccer is the latest inclusive competitive sport to be offered in the history of the Berkeley course, which also provides instruction in goalball and golf. In addition to time in the gym, the class meets on Tuesday evenings to study disability and sports.

Below are more excerpts from the full story at: http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/03/01/p...

Players maneuver a giant soccer ball across the court with the help of guards on the fronts of motorized wheelchairs. Some students have learned to spin their chairs around, building up power to smack the ball hard. Instruction in power soccer and goalball is done in partnership with the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program.

While power soccer exists elsewhere in the country, only at Berkeley is it played by disabled and non-disabled students together, says graduate student Matt Grigorieff, who is co-president of the Disabled Students Union and student founder of Berkeley’s Athletics for All program.


Video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Stephen McNally
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