Wheelchair Shopping

When you first start wheelchair shopping, you may be overwhelmed with the number of options on the market. You’ll find manual wheelchairs, power wheelchairs, scooters, adjustable models, folding chairs, sport wheelchairs, and more. Being inundated with all of the options at once can make your head spin. However, you can narrow down the options based on the needs of the disabled, elderly, or injured individual for whom you are wheelchair shopping.

If the reason for needing a wheelchair is a temporary injury, you obviously don’t want to purchase anything extravagant or spend large sums of money. Therefore, a power wheelchair is probably not the ultimate choice for such a temporary need. In this case, you will probably want to stick with a very basic manual wheelchair, perhaps a folding lightweight model that stores easily on the go and can be carried with you no matter where you are traveling. This is also true of the morbidly obese, who will hopefully lose weight and correct the situation but need a temporary means of transport in the interim.

For those with a permanent disability, there may be more than one option. Some prefer to maintain a manual wheelchair that they propel on their own, making sure that the muscles of which they still have control are exercised and strong. Others find it much easier to control an electric power wheelchair with a remote or joystick. Still others have no choice, including quadriplegics and those with extremely debilitating conditions that allow them only the use of the head and neck to control the power wheelchair independently. These chairs are modified to accept minute inputs from head and neck motions to propel the chair in the desired direction.

For the elderly, wheelchair shopping may lead you in a different direction entirely. In fact, most aging individuals do not need a full time mobility aid. It is only when they intend to be on their feet and walking for long periods of time that they might become winded or ill. In these cases, you may want to forego the wheelchair entirely and purchase a mobility scooter, which helps them get around in large public areas.

As you can see, there are several options to consider when you go wheelchair shopping. There are even models for children, as well as sport wheelchairs that are quicker and more agile for the active individual. Take your time and consider the needs in each particular application before making a purchase. Each person is different, and meeting his or her needs is the most important thing.