Wheelchair skate group which creates ‘community and acceptance’ celebrates anniversary

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The president of a wheelchair skating group has spoken fondly about how it helps to create a “sense of community and acceptance” and allows wheelchair users to feel as though they are “on the same playing field” as those with skates, as the group celebrates its 10-year anniversary.Wheels and Wheelchairs, who describe themselves as “a group of wheelchair users and skaters who go out together as a group enjoying the sensory rush of speed and collaboration in accessible sport”, started in 2012 and drew inspiration from a French group called Mobile En Ville. The group meet every Saturday, weather permitting, at London’s Battersea Park, where they join skaters from Easy Saturday Skate, which current president Isaac Harvey, 27, said has helped to create a “sense of community and acceptance”. “If it’s great, then we can all have fun, so it’s having that sense of community and how the skating community has allowed us to be a part of activities they do.” Charlene Bryant, 40, who lives in Fulham, has attended events organised by Wheels and Wheelchairs for around a year-and-a-half with her daughter Freya, 15, who has an unbalanced translocation between chromosomes 10 and 18 and is sight and hearing impaired. “It’s really hard as they get older to find groups that they can be involved in and or us to be able to skate together has been amazing”, she added.