Wheelchair

From ArticleWorld

A wheelchair is a chair-like medical device which can be used by people who are unable to walk in order to move around easily. Wheelchairs typically look like a chair mounted on wheels, with supportive seating to allow for better posture. Wheelchairs can be manual or electric.

Famous wheelchair users include Stephen Hawking, Frank Gardner, Frank Roosevelt and, for some time of his life, Vladimir Lenin.

Manual wheelchairs

Manual wheelchairs can be of several types:

• Self-propelled. These wheelchairs are propelled by the very occupant, who uses his hands to spin large rear wheels. The wheelchair can be turned right or left by not spinning one of the wheels. Some self-propelled wheelchairs use a lever that is pumped back and forth in order to make the chair move.

• Attendant-propelled. These are chairs with smaller rear wheels, which are driven by another person. They are more compact and often cheaper, but harder to push.

• Wheelbases. These are actually wheel platforms with seating systems, which allow for more postures while still retaining posture support.

Electric wheelchairs

Electric wheelchairs are battery-powered wheelchairs, which can be optimized for indoor usage, outdoor usage or both. These chairs include more complex functions, including the ability to be coordinated using non-conventional techniques (like chin controls) for patients with severe spinal cord lesions. Recent development also includes an anti-collision system for these wheelchairs. However, electric wheelchairs are more expensive.

Construction

Special facilities are required for buildings. In the 1990s, low floor trams and buses have been built in order to allow people with wheelchairs to use them. Other improvements, like ramps and others, have been built. There is a general concern towards making public facilities more accessible to disabled people using wheelchairs, especially after the various social movements that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.