The wheelchair basketball matches here at the Paralympics have given a glimpse of how disability sport could one day cross into the mainstream.

Yesterday's game between Great Britain and the USA was the perfect example; fast, combative and thrilling, it had a passion and excitement that would have appealed to any sports fan -- even one who has no interest in the Paralympics.

But the needs of the athletes in sports like wheelchair basketball are also driving huge advances in the technology used to assist disabled people.

Wheelchairs must be fast and light -- yet strong enough to withstand the rigours of the sport.

Over at the Paralympic Village, technicians from Otto Bock have a large tent which they've transformed into a repair shop, fixing hundreds of mangled wheelchairs and cracked prosthetic limbs.

The head of the repair service, Kevin Harney, says it's the athletes that are pushing forward the developments in wheelchair technology, taking products already available and customizing them for the needs of their sport.

The same is true with prosthetics.

Athlete Brian Frasure, for example, is himself a prosthetist. He's helping to design the artificial limbs that are enabling Paralympics to set new world records.

The down side is that not everyone can benefit from these technological developments.

Sports wheelchairs and state-of-the-art prosthetic limbs cost thousands of pounds -- putting them beyond the reach of many Paralympians from developing countries.