Powered Wheelchairs Enhancing Lives Of The Handicapped And Elderly

Wheelchairs are a boon to not only the handicapped but also for the elderly people. There are various types of wheelchairs. Some are manually operated and the others are electrically operated. Some wheelchairs are operated with the help of sensor devices. Here is a little information about the enhancement of living condition of the elderly and handicapped people with the help of the wheelchair fitted with sensors.

As mentioned earlier the wheelchairs are of immense help to the handicapped people, elderly people and others who could not walk due to various medical ailments. Those people need to move on their own. Confining themselves within four walls will harm them physically and mentally. Wheelchairs are nothing but chair on wheels. The chairs will have four wheels. The rear wheels will be larger than the front wheels. The chairs will be provided with sensors for safety, ultramodern navigation modules and steering that is omni directional.

The introduction of powered wheelchair is of biggest help for the severely disabled persons. They can move to different places without the help of others and even without exerting themselves much as in the case of manual wheelchairs. Conventional wheelchairs are very difficult to operate for the people who have limited psycho-mental capacity. There are two reasons for this. The first one is their mental and physical inability to operate the wheelchair.

The other reason is the complicated household environments such as small bathrooms located in one corner of the house with narrow passage. Controlling the wheelchair will be hard for those who have restricted psycho-mental capacity. In order to help severely affected people through research the technicians have come out with newer model. These models are provided with sensor instruments. These sensor instruments fitted in the wheelchair prevent the collision of the machine with any object be it is wall or other furniture items.

Hence the occupant need not worry about the collision and the subsequent injury while maneuvering the machine through the narrow passage. There is more freedom of operation. Some of the wheelchairs are provided with facilities like playback [moving on the prescribed or recorded direction and path] and back-tracing [facility to reverse the recent application]

The occupant of the wheelchair should be taught very well about the functioning of the wheelchair. It is better to make the occupant to go through the operating booklet thoroughly. Incase on any doubt about the particular function, it has to be clarified by the technician then and there. The basic function of the wheelchair must be made to known to the occupant otherwise we may need to design or order specific wheelchair for the occupant, I mean for the disabled person.

Very few models of the wheelchairs are fitted with Infra-red or ultrasonic sensors. The prime function of this sensor is to prevent dashing, thus providing safe movement. Some other wheelchairs are provided with sensors that help in movement directed by the environment. These sensors help in moving the wheelchair along the wall or through the door or for docking the wheelchair at station. Few other models were provided with special control devices such as play-back and back-tracing as mentioned earlier.

As the wheelchair is fitted with more advance equipments the movement the wheelchair by the occupant becomes very easy and the occupants are less burdened. At the same time as the functionality of the machine becomes more the safety becomes very important which should never be compromised.

Though the powered wheelchairs move automatically with the press of button, the speed and the direction must be decided by the occupant. Hence the occupant must be given proper training before letting him to operate the machine on his own. For some time it is better to ask the occupant to operate the machine inside the house. Once he is confident of himself, he can be allowed to use the wheelchair wherever he wants.

Though there are difficulty in understanding and operating the powered wheelchair, there is no doubt that these powered machines enhance the standard of living of the handicapped and the elderly people once they are familiar with the machine and its operation. The occupant will be confidant of himself, the dependency of the occupant on the other person for his movement will be less. The freedom of the occupant is ensured with the sensor controlled wheel chairs.

Next article: The Four Wheel Drive Hybrid Wheelchair