The History of Wheelchairs

• 6th century - this is the earliest found image of a wheelchair. It is incised in stone on a Chinese sarcophagus.
• 16th century - King Philip II of Spain used an elaborate rolling chair with movable arm and leg rests.
• 1700 - King Louis XIV used a "roulette" for moving about while recovering from an operation.
• 18th century - the first wheelchair that resembles today's design. It had two large front wooden wheels and one caster in rear.
• 19th and 20th centuries - following the American Civil war and World War I, the first wheelchairs were built with wooden frames, wicker seats, adjustable arm rests, footrests, and large spoked wheels.
• 1894 - a U.S. patent was filed for a wheelchair with a fixed frame, adjustable surfaces, firm wicker seats, and large rear wheels for self-propulsion.

In 1933 together with his disabled friend and fellow engineer, Herbert Everest, who had broken his back in a mining accident. The two saw the business potential of the invention, and went on to become the first mass-manufacturers of wheelchairs: Everest and Jennings. Their "x-brace" design,  is still in common use, over 70 years later

• 1937 - a patent was filed for the x-folding frame wheelchair. Sam Duke also marketed a folding wheelchair at same time.
• 1950s - Everest & Jennings developed the first powered wheelchair. They followed the development of transistor-controlled motors and adapted it to thier interest by adding a motor to their manual wheelchair design,
• 1952 - the beginning of wheelchair sports occurred with the first games held at the Stoke Mandeville Rehabilitation Center in England.
• 1964 - the first Paralympic games were held in Tokyo, Japan.
• 1975 - Bob Hall competed in Boston Marathon.
• 1970/80 - revolution in lighter weight manual chairs driven by the need and desires of wheelchair athletes.
• 1980s - microprocessor-controlled powered wheelchairs were developed, which allowed customization of controls to meet the needs of more user needs.

     Wheelbase chairs are wheeled platforms with specially-molded seating systems interfaced with them for users with a more complicated posture. A molded seating system involves taking a cast of a person's best achievable seated position and the either carving the shape from memory foam or forming a plastic mesh around it. This seat is then covered, framed, and attached to a wheelbase.

Electric-powered wheelchairs

An electric-powered wheelchair is a wheelchair that is moved via the means of an electric motor and navigational controls rather than manual power.

Recent developments

Recent technological advances are slowly improving wheelchair and EPW technology. Some wheelchairs, such as the iBOT, incorporate gyroscopic technology and other advances, enabling the chair to balance and run on only two of its four wheels on some surfaces, thus raising the user to a height comparable to a standing person. They can also incorporate stair-climbing and four-wheel-drive feature motorized assists for hand-powered chairs are becoming more available and advanced. The popular Segway Personal Transporter is a mobility device that was a direct outgrowth of the development of the iBOT wheelchair.

The addition of geared, all-mechanical wheels for manual wheelchairs is a new development incorporating a hypocycloidal reduction gear into the wheel design. The 2-gear wheels  can be added to a manual wheelchair. The geared wheels provide a user with additional assistance by providing leverage through gearing (like a bicycle, not a motor). The two-gear wheels offer two speed ratios- 1:1 (no help, no extra friction) and 2:1, providing 100% more hill climbing force. The low gear incorporates an automatic "hill hold" function which holds the wheelchair in place on a hill between pushes, but will allow the user to override the hill hold to roll the wheels backwards if needed. The low gear also provides downhill control when descending.

Other wheelchair variants

A Standing wheelchair is one that supports the user in a nearly standing position. They can be used as both a wheelchair and a standing frame, allowing the user to sit or stand in the wheelchair as they wish. They often go from sitting to standing with a hydraulic pump or electric-powered assist.

A bariatric wheelchair is one designed to support larger weights; most standard chairs are designed to support no more than 250 lbs. on average.

Pediatric wheelchairs are another available subset of wheelchairs. Hemi wheelchairs have lower seats which are designed for easy foot propulsion. The decreased seat height also allows them to be used by children and shorter individuals.

A knee scooter is a related device which may be substituted for a wheelchair when an injury has occurred to only one leg, below the knee. The patient rests the injured leg on the scooter, grasps the handlebars, and pushes with the uninjured leg.

Sport wheelchairs

                                Disabled athletes use streamlined sport wheelchairs for disabled sports that require speed and agility, such as basketball, rugby, tennis and racing. Each wheelchair sport tends to use specific types of wheelchairs, and these no longer look like their everyday cousins. They are usually non-folding (in order to increase rigidity), with a pronounced angle for the wheels (which provides stability during a sharp turn) and made of composite, lightweight materials. Sport wheelchairs are not generally for everyday use, and are often a 'second' chair specifically for sport use, although some users prefer the sport options for everyday.

Powerchair Football/Power Soccer

A new sport has been developed for powerchair users called powerchair football or power soccer. It is the only competitive team sport for powerchair users. The Federation Internationale de Powerchair Football Associations (FIPFA) governs the sport and is located in Paris, France with country affiliates around the world.

Public transit

The construction of low floor trams and buses is being encouraged, whereas the use of paternosters in public buildings without any alternative method of transportation has been criticized due to the lack of access for wheelchair users

In Adelaide, Australia, all public transport has provision for at least two wheelchairs per bus, tram or train. In addition all trains have space available for bicycles.

A list of notable users of wheelchairs

Australia

• Durham, Judith, singer

Russia

• Lenin, Vladimir, leader of the Bolshevik party, first premier of the Soviet Union

United Kingdom

• Dowding, Hugh, RAF commander during Battle of Britain, suffered from severe arthritis in old age
• Olivier, Laurence, actor, appeared in a wheelchair for last film War Requiem (1989)
• Bogarde, Dirk, actor, suffered a stroke in 1996  
• Hawking, Stephen, theoretical astrophysicist
• Churchill, Winston, politician, suffered various mini-strokes during final years
• Williams, Frank, founder and manager of the WilliamsF1 Formula One racing team

 United States

• Barrymore, Lionel, actor
• Flynt, Larry, publisher
• Fotheringham, Aaron, wheelchair acrobat
• Kovic, Ron, Vietnam veteran and peace activist
• Rainey, Wayne, former Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion
• Reeve, Christopher,  movie actor
• Roosevelt, Franklin, 32nd President of the United States
• Johnny Cash, Singer/Songwriter/Guitar Player, in his final concerts he was in a wheelchair the whole time .

 Fictional

• Robert T. Ironside from Ironside
• John Locke on the television series Lost is no longer paraplegic, after the jet he was on crashes on a mysterious island.
• Jerome Eugene Morrow from Gattaca
• Mother from the 1960s spy series The Avengers
• Christopher Pike from Star Trek
• Andy Pipkin from Little Britain, although he does not strictly require a wheelchair.
• Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights
• Lisa Randolph from Carol Ellis's novel The Body.
• Lincoln Rhyme from Jeffery Deaver's novel (and movie) The Bone Collector.
• Stevie from Malcolm in the Middle
• Dr. Strangelove, Peter Sellers' title character in the 1964 comedy film of the same name.
• Joe Swanson, from Family Guy
• Dan Taylor, Vietnam veteran in the movie Forrest Gump
• Professor Charles Xavier aka Professor X, founder and leader of the X-Men
• Jake Scully from the movie Avatar.

Wheelchair Etiquette...

based on Ric Garren in Challenge Magazine

The following suggestions enable better communication with people who use wheelchairs:

1. The key concept? Focus on the person, not on his or her disability.
2. It is appropriate to shake hands with a person who has a disability, even if they have limited use of their hands or wear an artificial limb.
3. Always ask the person who uses a wheelchair if he or she would like assistance before you jump in to help. Your help may not be needed or wanted.
4. Don't hang or lean on a person's wheelchair. A wheelchair is part of his or her own personal or body space, so don't lean on it, rock it, etc.
5. Speak directly to the person who uses the wheelchair, not to someone who is nearby as if the wheelchair user did not exist.
6. If your conversation lasts more than a few minutes, consider sitting down, etc. to get yourself on the same eye-level as the person who uses the wheelchair. It will keep both of you from getting a stiff neck!
7. Don't demean or patronize the person who uses a wheelchair by patting him or her on the head.
8. When giving directions, think abut things like travel distance, location of curbcuts and ramps, weather conditions and physical obstacles that may hinder their travel.
9. Don't discourage children from asking questions of a person who uses a wheelchair about their wheelchair. Open communication helps overcome fearful or misleading attitudes.
10. When a person who uses a wheelchair "transfers" out of the wheelchair to a chair, pew, car, toilet or bed, do not move the wheelchair out of reach. If you think it would be best to move it for some reason ask the person who uses the wheelchair about the best option for them.
11. It is OK to use expressions like "running along" or "let's go for a walk" when speaking to person who uses a wheelchair. It is likely they express the idea of moving along in exactly the same way.
12. People who use wheelchairs have varying capabilities. Some person who use wheelchairs can walk with aid or for short distances. They use wheelchairs because they help them to conserve energy and to move about with greater efficiency.
13. Don't classify or think of people who use wheelchairs as "sick." Wheelchairs are used to help people adapt to or compensate for the mobility impairments that result from much non-contagious impairment. Some of these are, for example, spinal cord injury, stroke, amputation, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, post polio, heart disease, etc.
14. Check your assumptions! Don't assume that using a wheelchair is a tragedy. Wheelchairs when they are fitted and well chosen are actually a means of freedom that allows the user to move about independently and fully engage in life.