Ensuring Safety in Using Power Wheelchairs

Have you just been a victim of serious motor impairment and find that you will be wheelchair-bound for the rest of your life? Fear not the coming days of your life since you can still lead an active life with a little help from the right choice of wheelchair. Of course, that would still depend on the recommendations and advice of the health care professional monitoring your condition.
The wheelchair for you will depend on what condition you are in and the extent of activities that you are limited to. Getting a power wheelchair over a manual one might be a turning point decision in overcoming your condition. However, there is several safety issues that you need to know before moving around in your power wheelchair. Remember “knowledge is power”, and as a power wheelchair user, it helps to know and understand the various safety issues of your apparatus to enjoy more varied uses of your power wheelchair.
First off, here are the common types and configurations of power wheelchairs that are grouped depending on their uses, size and features:
1. Folding, light-weight models
2. Light-weight, “power-assisted” models
3. Combination “Indoor-Outdoor” models
4. Outdoor models
5. Indoor Stair-Climbing models
There are basic dangers in using stair – climbing wheelchair models is that if it falls down a flight of stairs, serious injury or death to the user is likely. As such, before choosing the use of a stair-climbing power wheelchair, a lot of different variables need to be considered, most depend on the users ability to control the mechanism. Generally, in order to prevent and survive accidents on power wheelchair use, the users’ age and health factors must be significantly considered and the wheelchair control methods.
Considerations need to be made on the specific user of power wheelchairs, too. There are disability and impairment categories that involve safety risks on using power wheelchairs.
• low safety risks – paraplegics and amputees
• moderate risk – people with weak or poorly controlled upper bodies
• high risk – people with little or no upper body movement, paralyzed small people like children and “small” adults.
Now that you know the safety risks on various disabled users of power wheelchairs, there’s some safety information that you need to know in order to avoid further risks:
1) Mechanical brakes – necessary item in power wheelchairs and an absolute must for outdoor models
2) Front-wheel configurations – outdoor models must have powered large wheels in front and indoor models with front-wheel casters must be used only on flat, level surfaces.
3) User Arm-Stabilization – for wheelchair users with impaired arm and hand function
4) Safety Shut-off and Braking controls – must be provided for users who use mouth, breath or other than hand controls
Several things, like traversing inclines, avoiding ground obstacles to wheels, fully charged batteries, having a mobile phone, avoiding rain and snow and having rechargeable batteries must always be kept in mind by power wheelchair users, too. -30-