Wheelchair users

By its very nature, a hospital should be an accessible building. Most patients cannot be discharged except from a sitting position in a wheelchair. The building s design, however, does not necessarily assist persons with mobility impairments in all circumstances. If the generators fail in a multistory hospital, wheelchair users, together with those who rely on canes, walkers, and similar devices, cannot be evacuated by elevator. They can leave only via the stairs, and then only in specialized evacuation devices. 

Several companies make products to assist evacuation by wheelchair users or others with severe mobility impairments. Note, the needs for the use of any such device might be as a result of a disability (mobility, respiratory, or cardio), a pregnancy, or an injury as a result of the event triggering the evacuation at hand, to point out but a few examples. The most widely known are lightweight chairs used to carry a person down a stairway. A man with quadriplegia safely evacuated the World Trade Center on 9/11 using a comparable piece of equipment. In his case, he and his coworkers trained on this equipment procured for him after the 1993 bombing. 

There are two basic classes of wheelchairs manually powered and externally powered. For practical purposes, externally powered wheelchairs are electrically powered wheelchairs. There are approximately 200,000 wheelchairs sold annually within the United States of which about 20,000 are powered wheelchairs. Most wheelchairs are purchased by third-party-payers (e.g., insurance companies, government agencies). This requires the market to be responsive to wheelchairs user s needs, prescriber expertise and experience, third-party-payer purchase criteria, and competition from other manufacturers. Despite the complicated interaction between these components, and the regulation of products by several government agencies, a variety of wheelchairs and options are available. 

The desire to achieve better performance has led wheelchair users, inventors, and manufacturers to constantly develop specialized wheelchairs for sports. There is no real typical sports wheelchair as the design depends heavily on the sport. Basketball and tennis wheelchairs are often thought to typify sports wheelchair design. However, racing, field events or shooting wheelchairs have little in common with the former. 

Several factors must be considered when designing a wheelchair frame what are the intended uses, what are the abilities of the user, what are the resources available, and what are the existing products available. These factors determine if and how the frame will be designed and built. Successful designs of wheelchairs can only be accomplished with continuous input from and interaction with wheelchair users. The durability, aesthetics, function, ride comfort, and cost of the frame are dependent on the materials for construction, the frame geometry, and fabrication methods. One of the issues that makes wheelchair design more complicated is the fact that many users are dependent upon wheeled mobility everyday, nearly all day. 

An important aspect of the evaluation, and possible retraining of wheelchair users is to determine the optimal stroke kinetics and kinematics [2]. However, there is typically some degree of variation from one stroke to another. Wheelchair propulsion kinematic data are typically cyclic (i.e., a person repeats or nearly repeats his/her arm motions over several strokes). Each marker of the kinematic model (e.g., shoulder, elbow, wrist, knuckle) of each subject generates an x and y set of data which is periodic. The frequencies... 

Battery technology for wheelchair users remains unchanged despite the call for improvements by power wheelchair users. This maybe in part due to the relatively low number of units purchased, about 500,000 per annum, when compared to automotive applications with about 6.6 million per annum by a single manufacturer. Wheelchair batteries are typically rated at 12 V and 30 to 90 ampere-h capacity at room temperature. A power wheelchair draws about 10 A during use. The range of the power wheelchair is directly proportional to the ampere-hour rating for the operating temperature. 

Securement systems are used to temporarily attach wheelchairs to vehicles during transport. Many wheelchair users can operate a motor vehicle from their wheelchair, but are unable to transfer into a vehicle seat. Auto safety standards have reduced the number of U.S. automobile accident fatalities despite an increase in the number of vehicles. The crash pulse determines the severity of the collision of the test sled, and hence, simulates real-world conditions. Securement systems are tested with a surrogate wheelchair at 30 milesper h (48 - -2/—0 km per h) witha20g deceleration. Wheelchairs must be safely restrained when experiencing an impact of this magnitude and no part of the wheelchair shall protrude into the occupant space where it might cause injury. 

The relationship between injury criteria and the mechanics of restraint systems are important to insure the safety of wheelchair users in motor vehicles. Hip and head deflection are often used criteria for determining potential injury. The automotive industry has invested considerable effort for research and development to protect vehicle passengers. Research is not nearly extensive for the passenger who remains seated in a wheelchair while traveling. Many wheelchair and occupant restraint systems copy the designs used for standard automobile seats. However, this type of design may not be appropriate. 

Reasonable accommodation might include, for example, making the workplace accessible for wheelchair users or providing a reader or interpreter for someone who is blind or hearing impaired. 

Knee Space. Knee space needs to be available to wheelchair users to allow them access to the microwave. Make sure that the microwave is placed on a countertop that provides adequate knee space. 

Toe space on base cabinets should be at least 9 in high and 6 in deep to allow wheelchair users to maneuver closer to the counters. 

Adequate knee space under sink provides clearance for turns as well as space for close approach to sink by wheelchair users. 

Piping underneath sink must not interfere with clear floor space and knee space for wheelchair users and must be insulated to prevent heat injury to legs. 

Wheelchair user needs a clear floor space in front of sink area of approximately 30 by 48 in and knee height to bottom of sink of 22 in. 

Door swings back 180 degrees so that wheelchair users can make a close parallel approach to reach items from die side. 

An adequate reach range for a wheelchair user to make a side reach is 9 to 54 in above the floor... 

For a built-in storage drawer system, use full-extension drawer slides. These slides allow drawers to be pulled out of the cabinet for easy viewing and reaching to contents. These drawers should not be placed more than 42 in above the floor for wheelchair users. 

Berg, K., Hines, M., Allen, S., Wheelchair Users at Home Few Home Modifications and Many Injurious Falls, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 92, No. 1, 2002, pp. 48M9. 

Due to the fact, that our internal users test the products, we find a technical solution rather fast, because two of the wheelchair users have been in the company for 30 years, so it is a very close connection with them." (Healths, embedded lead user)... 

Maheu V, Frappier J, Archambault PS, and Routhier F, Evaluation of the JACO robotic arm Clinico-economic study for powered wheelchair users with upper-extremity disabilities, IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, Zurich, Switzerland, June 29-July 1,2011. 

There is very little information on road traffic accidents affecting some of the most vulnerable road users, for example people with disabilities and equestrians. Police STATS19 data do not routinely record whether someone is blind, partially sighted, deaf or a wheelchair user. Until 2000, data were not collected on horses involved in road traffic accidents. 

Road users with mobility impairment Many people have either temporary or permanent mobility impairments. It is estimated that more than 750 000 people are regular wheelchair users while many more will have difficulty walking. 

There is a need to obtain and examine road accident data involving people with a mobility impairment. Data on accidents involving wheelchair users would be very useful. 

Wheelchair users cannot cross this access road... 

Mobility audits are carried out to check that people with disabilities are not disadvantaged in any way by a scheme design. The audits consider the provision for visually and hearing-impaired pedestrians, wheelchair users and mobility-impaired people. The publication Inclusive Mobility is a useful point of reference for anyone carrying out these audits. The latest requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 could lead to these audits becoming more... 

Control data may be available to help the Safety Assessor identify the likely accident frequency. However, exposure to risk will require some idea of the number of people involved and this is unlikely to be available in many instances. For example, the number of visually impaired pedestrians or wheelchair users likely to cross a particular road is difficult to establish. 

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