The 1968 Summer Paralympics (Hebrew: המשחקים הפאראלימפיים בקיץ 1968) were the third Paralympic Games to be held. Organised under the guidance of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), they were known as the 17th International Stoke Mandeville Games at the time.[2] The games were originally planned to be held alongside the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, but in 1966, the Mexican government decided against it due to difficulties.[3] The Israeli government offered to host the games in Tel Aviv, a suggestion that was accepted.
Lawn bowls was included in the program for the first time. In wheelchair basketball, a women's team event was added, as was a 100 m wheelchair race for men in athletics.[4]
Having made its Paralympic Games début four years earlier, South Africa continued to compete at the Paralympics, by sending a delegation to the Tel Aviv Games. It was, at the time, banned from the Olympic Games due to its policy of apartheid, but it was not banned from the Paralympics until 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem.[7][8]