Page 17 - Mobility Management, June 2018

ATP Series
By Laurie Watanabe
In wheelchairs that are self propelled, consumers often fixate on frame weight. In their minds, lighter is obviously better — and there is a general truth to that. Pushing a lighter device is obviously preferable to pushing a heavier one, if all other factors are equal.
But that’s the challenge: So many other factors should be part of the decision-making process when an ultralightweight chair is being selected. There’s never a scenario in which the consumer and the wheeled mobility team are choosing between two chairs identical in every capacity except weight. So when is a chair’s weight truly important?
Transfers & Transport
Josh Anderson, VP at Permobil, has used an ultralightweight chair since his early teens.
“I think consumers fixate on transfer weight because it is something that is so tangible,” he said. “It is harder to quantify some of the other critical elements, like how well a chair rolls (efficiency); how durable is the chair; and is the chair more comfortable and does that make me more functional or able to do more independently?
“These elements are just as important as weight, if not more
important than weight.”
Then, when is a chair’s weight important?
Tina Roesler, PT, MS, is International Sales Manager for
Motion Composites, said a chair’s transport weight can be a significant consideration.
“When a user or caregiver lifts the chair in and out of a vehicle, they are often at high risk for injury, reaching out for the chair and lifting it,” she noted. “Most of the research says weight
does not have a huge impact on propulsion, for example, when the chair is properly configured, but will impact independent transport.”
Anderson said he typically transfers in and out of his car several times a day.
“Transport weight could certainly affect the type of car a person drives or how quickly and easily they get in and out,” he explained. “But the design, the actual dimensions of the frame, has more of an impact on the type of car a person drives and how quickly and easily they are able to get in and out than weight. Weight is not the most important factor for me in transporting my chair. The overall dimensions of the frame are more critical to me being able to independently load my chair in and out of my car.”
WEIGHT ABSTRACT: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/NAQIEWEI
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MOBILITY MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2018 17