Electric Wheelchairs: Enabling The Disabled In The Community To Head (further) Out And About
As I have stated in the past, I have been working in the community care field over the past ten years and one facet of this reality that has more recently been dawning on me is the reality that I have in actuality had my understanding expanded with regards to a lot of of the numerous details of wheelchairs, both manual and electric or motorized. Whether it has been working with individual clients, assisiting them with some of their more plain wheelchair upkeep or chatting about chairs with various maintenance and repair technicians, i have come to gain knowledge of a thing or two and gain a better comprehension of how this nature of mobility device enables people in their own homes and out and about in the community.
Subsequently what are some of the things that I have learned?
For starters, prior to starting my job I would in no way have known that nearly all electric wheelchairs utilize either a system of gears or a system of belts or sometimes even both. I had not heard of the name “power chair” before my job either, but now I know that the idiom refers to nearly all categories of motorized wheel chair. My clients with power wheel chairs with belt drives seem to usually have had very quiet chairs, but have often required more maintenance on them. The chairs that had gear drives were reasonably quiet and lower-maintenance predominantly, but they tend to deteriorate more abruptly then belt drives, and seemed to grow noisier in the process.
Different chairs categorically seem to vary in their durability: several of my clients have really put their chairs through the wringer but the chairs have kept on chuging along (with the proper t l c when required), while others have found their chairs’ performance worsening over time in spite of limited and more or less straightforward usage. The strength of the chair’s framework seems to be a prime issue in determining the resilience of the chair and everywhere it ought to be used; lighter frames are generally more fitting for primarily indoor use. The lighter design of wheel chair structure can more easily crack and the front forks of the framework can inadvertently bend. In addition, it has seemed that powered wheelchair motors die out much more rapidly when they are used greatly in an outside situation. The chairs that include a heavier model of framework appear to be much more long-lasting and reliable, and those frames are intended to carry more weight. A few of the newer motorized wheelchairs my clients have owned even incorporate a type of spring suspension which provides the user with a much smoother drive over more bumpy ground, which is good for those who have had more serious neck injuries to contend with. (comfort in the chair while in operation being an issue here for some)
The individuals I work with seem to customarily have had three choices when it comes to the performance of their chairs: front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and a mid-wheel drive. The front-wheel drive motorized wheelchair has become more common with many of the folks in my community because it offers a tighter turning function, but I have been led to believe that this is the prevailing choice these days in most regions. Most of the front-wheel drive wheelchairs have a slightly lower top ( maximum ) speed than their rear-wheel counterparts because they are known to turn too easily at higher speeds. The rear-wheel drive motorized wheel chair is most likely the more traditional and most popular design of chair – at least from what I have heard over time. It seems to be faster then a front-wheel model but gives less impressive turning in comparison to the front-wheel and mid-wheel chairs. I have known a couple of individuals who have had experience with the mid-wheel drive wheelchair and they have seemed to feel that the mid wheel drive provides the tightest turning of all. Nonetheless their chairs had a tendency to be fairly shaky when stopping and starting. The mid-wheel drive has caster wheels in the rear and an extra set of anti-tip wheels in the front. This set up of wheels limits their use on more uneven surfaces.
Anything else?
Well another quality that most powerchairs have included (at least in my experience) is either a power tilt feature or a power recline; the power tilt allows the chair’s occupant to tilt the entire seat assembly of the chair (including the footrest) back about 45 degrees, while the power recline allows the seat to recline right back and the footrest assembly to raise up horizontally, allowing for a much more horizontal surface. Both of these features are an efficient means of allowing the chair’s occupant to alleviate the pressure they would feel after sitting in their chair for any extended length of time. (pressure to the lower regions – ie. the buttocks or even the feet is a key feature in the development of some types of pressure sores in disabled folks)
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