wheelchairs and Accessories

Wheelchair Selection

Selecting the optimal wheelchair is a crucially important process for you. All of the choices you have to make can feel overwhelming if you are choosing your wheels for the first time. You might anticipate that you will recover from your injury or illness, so you wonder why you should even bother to get a wheelchair at all. But the right wheelchair is a liberator, not a prison.

When you configure the right chair for you and your abilities, your quality of life increases dramatically. Even people with significant disabilities can have a considerable degree of independence and activity with the right chair—more, in fact, than ever before in history. That’s small consolation when you’re facing a recent loss of mobility, but perhaps you can appreciate how much more limited you would have been not so long ago, but for the dramatic advances in wheelchair design described in this chapter.

Wheelchair design has advanced tremendously. No longer limited to the aluminum folding chairs you might be accustomed to seeing in hospitals or airports, there is now an immense array of designs and options for both manual and power wheelchairs. Wheelchairs are highly adjustable— or even custom built—available in various sizes, with features that make them easier to drive, safer, and more dignified—even stylish.

Modern chairs are also better-looking; even power chairs have become less bulky and obtrusive and institutional-looking. The visual emphasis on disability has been reduced, bringing more attention to the user of the chair instead of the chair itself.

Your Role
The optimal approach to selecting a wheelchair is to work as a team with a therapist (typically an occupational or physical therapist) who specializes in “seating and positioning,” and a local dealer who will actually provide the chair along with support services, such as adjusting it properly on delivery.

But no matter how skilled and knowledgeable your therapist and salesperson are, you are the leading expert on you. You are the one whose life depends on having the right wheelchair, so it is very, very much in your best interest to take an active role in its selection. Learn as much as you can, and be patient with the process before making the final choice.

Do Some Research
Other chair users you have encountered—possibly from your rehab experience, support groups, participation in athletics, or your local center for independent living—are valuable sources of information about wheelchairs. But keep in mind that experienced chair users tend to be very opinionated and vocal about their  choices. You can learn much from what others say, but what works best for them might not work for you. Each person’s physical capacities, body type, and lifestyle are completely unique as a set, so your wheelchair must be unique to who you are and how you intend to live.

My experience with purchasing the best chair for me came primarily from my own research, which included talking with other wheelchair users. I got a couple of names from the retailer, but the best information I got was from the Internet.

Learn as much as possible about chairs and what is currently available on the market. You can request product information for the chair models that are potential solutions for you, which will also be available as a downloadable document from the company website. You should also request or download the order form, which lists the full array of options available for a given chair model.

Check the track record of the chairs you are considering. Although major flaws are uncommon, there could be defects in the manufacture of some chairs, as with any consumer product. The US Food and Drug Administration keeps track of voluntary recalls by wheelchair manufacturers, though not all manufacturers are entirely open about such problems.

You can contact the Food and Drug Administration for this information. Newer
manufacturers should not be suspect just because they are less experienced,
but there is always some risk of unforeseen problems that simply may not have appeared yet. Seek out users of a given product and speak with them about its performance and quality before making your final choice.

Be Prepared for Your Consultation
The therapist and wheelchair dealer will need to know many things about where you live and work. The therapist might visit your home and your workplace to gather information, but you will want to take an active part in making sure your chair will optimize—not limit—your mobility and comfort at home and work. Do your own survey of your home and workplace, and then arrive at your therapist appointment or the wheelchair store equipped with answers to questions such as these:

How wide are your doors—main entry, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms,
etc.?

•  Are there tight angles to negotiate, such as a hallway that turns sharply

at the bedroom door?

• How large is the bathroom? Will it be possible to wheel your chair

alongside the bathtub or must you face it directly? Is the door smaller
than the others in your house? How much space is available for the
chair so that you can close the door once inside?

•  What is the knee clearance of tables and desks?
•  How high are cabinets and shelves that you might need to reach?
• Is the terrain around your home paved? If not, what kind of surface is

it? Is it level?

• On what types of surfaces will you do most of your wheeling? Carpet,

tile, concrete, packed soil?
You must also consider the vehicles you in which you will ride:

• If you drive, do you have a car or a van? Two or four doors?

 What is the size of the trunk in the family car, or the cars of friends you
go out with?

• What kind of public transportation might you use?

Failure to consider any one of these points can mean having to live with a constant irritant or insurmountable obstacle and facing the stress of unnecessary restriction of your mobility every day—just because you got the wrong chair. You might even be risking your safety if, for instance, you are forced to make a long transfer to the bath or shower because you chose those fixed footrests, which prevent you from getting close enough.

Although my rehab folks were wonderful, my first two chairs did not suit my lifestyle. There were places I might have been able to go, people I might have been able to see, and events I could have participated in if I had had the right chair from the beginning.

Getting the right chair can also save you from having to make potentially
expensive home modifications.

It was many years before we could make my home wheelchair accessible. If I had known that there were power wheelchairs out there that could raise a seated person 6 to 8 inches or that had a turning radius of 19.5 inches, my life would have been so much more comfortable. And it wouldn’t have cost quite so much for the home modifications that we eventually did.

You will also want to share critical information about your lifestyle and the kinds of activities you plan to participate in. If you like to be on the go—visiting friends, attending entertainment and sporting events, taking classes—or travel for either pleasure or business, you might need a different chair than if you prefer a more quiet life at home most of the time. Along with the previous lists, make one that includes:

• Hobbies and activities for which your chair will be a consideration
• Relevant information about any “homes away from home.” If you like

to hang out at your best friend’s place, you want to make sure you can get around independently there, too.

• The importance of the appearance of your chair to you. Do you see

yourself in something sporty? Eye-catching? Or do you prefer to be as inconspicuous as possible?

• Your usual level of physical activity, including exercise

One rider describes his experience with the selection process:

I spent two days with a team in making my decision. The team included a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. The physical therapist spent time assessing my strengths and weaknesses. We then decided on seating requirements before addressing the actual chair selection. We spent a lot of time discussing my lifestyle and exactly how and where the chair was to be used.

Once the medical needs were identified and physical measurements
were taken, the last thing was to determine the exact model of chair. We were able to narrow it down to five, which I was able to try out for a few hours each. The trial included maneuvering in a simulation of the work area I use and then spending an hour or so outside on a variety of terrain. We also tried them in my van to see how they fit and the method of transfer I would need to use to get in the driver’s seat.

Keep an Open Mind
Despite the variety of wheelchairs on the market and the many options available,
you may not be able to find every feature and detail you would ideally like in one chair. As with other purchases, such as a car or home, some compromises
and tradeoffs are usually necessary. As you work your way through the selection process, try to think about the big picture and how you will use your chair over time. Establish priorities, learn from the experience of others, and value the advice of experts, but place the highest priority on getting what will best meet your needs for mobility, safety, and comfort. For example, it is common for people to be drawn to the appearance of a chair, but it is dangerous to be overly influenced by the look of a chair, to the possible exclusion of other, more important, functional characteristics.
That really cool-looking rigid frame chair might not fit into the trunk of your family car. Doe Cayting of Wheelchairs of Berkeley, California, has seen people become too attached to the appearance of the chair, in lieu of other features more important to their mobility:

You have to think about whether aesthetics is the most important thing for you, because the right chair is always a question of compromise. There isn’t an exact right or wrong. But if you want something that looks a certain way, and I
know it is not appropriate, it is my responsibility as a supplier to say no.

Fortunately, there are lots of good-looking chairs that fit many needs.
Compared to the institutional-style chair that everyone had to use until the
1980s, whatever you choose will be better looking and more to your liking than in “the old days.”

{ Credit}

Life on Wheels
The A to Z Guide to Living Fully with Mobility Issues
Gary Karp