I got an e-mail the other day from Zurich, Switzeland concerning a website that's all about wheelchair sports videos. Newdisability's Director, a Dr. Gene Emmer has asked me to post their press release. Without further adieu:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A Video Celebration of Wheelchair Athletes
Zurich, Switzerland -- Med Services Europe announced a Web Collection of “Cool Wheelchair Sports Videos”. According to Dr Gene Emmer, President of Med Services Europe, the free collection at NewDisability.com (direct link: http://www.NewDisability.com/videos.htm) is meant to be a “Video Celebration of Wheelchair Athletes” and to help to raise the awareness of wheelchair sports in the eyes of the public as well as the sports media.
“While the media celebrates the abilities of sports legends such as Kobe Bryant and Michael Schumacher, media attention to wheelchair athletes is minimal. Most sports writers can not name more than a few wheelchair athletes”, says Dr Emmer “But let’s see Kobe Bryant sink a 3 pointer or make a lay-up from a wheelchair.”
“Many wheelchair athletes have survived injuries that would have left the majority of us side-lined for life. They have not only come back from their injuries, they have shown us that they are heroes. But are we paying attention?” asked Dr Emmer.
“The media is simply not giving wheelchair athletes the coverage that they deserve. One of the few exceptions is the BBC, which devotes an entire section of its website to Disability Sport and regularly reports on wheelchair sporting events. They are setting an example for other leading newspapers and broadcasters around the world. Unfortunately, most of BBC’s videos are restricted to UK viewers only.”
“We are just at the beginning of building our video collection, but have already gathered a wide-range of videos representing a cross section of wheelchair sports and some exceptionally talented wheelchair athletes, including wheelchair tennis player Ester Vergeer, wheelchair basketball player Ade Adeptan, murderball player Mark Zupan and the young wheelchair skateboarder Aaron Fotheringham”
On the topic of challenges to creating the collection, Dr Emmer said,” One of our challenges is copyright issues. So instead of downloading the videos to our website, generally we create a link to the source website and the video opens directly when clicked. The risk is that each website uses different video players. Some prefer QuickTime, others Real Player and still others Media Player. Since not all computers will have all types of video players installed, some people will not be able to see all of the videos.”
“Our vision is that this will become the largest collection of wheelchair sports videos on the internet. Our hope is that it will serve as a resource for sports journalists and the public and help to raise awareness to wheelchair sports. We are asking the public to help us by suggesting cool sports wheelchair videos. And we are challenging the sports media to give these remarkable men and women the attention that they deserve.”
About Med Services Europe
Med Services Europe GmbH, a Zurich, Switzerland registered company. In addition to RehaDesign Wheelchair Gloves (http://www.newdisability.com/gloves.htm), the wheelchair gloves design for active wheelchair users, we represent Colours Wheelchairs (http://www.colourswheelchair.com) in Europe and the Middle East. We seek distributors and dealers for our products. Dealers are encouraged to contact us for more information at http://www.NewDisability.com or http://www.MedServicesEurope.com or +41764249963.
