They are not made of glass

Photographer
Joon Ho Kim

Wheelchair rugby, or quad-rugby, is a sport originally developed for quadriplegics, but can be played by anyone with a disability in the upper and lower limbs. As the objective of the game is to cross the goal line with the ball, one of the most used defensive maneuvers is to collide your own chair with the opponent's to divert you out of the way. The overturns and falls that eventually happen because of these maneuvers are high points of the game, when the vibration of the habitués contrasts with the surprise and strangeness of those who know little or nothing about this sport or about their physical disability. The purpose of this essay is to highlight those moments - the ones that most emphatically contradict the stereotype of disability and fragility that we attribute to these bodies - as a way to visually deconstruct the stigma of physical disability.