Rolling Traveler

Before I begin today’s topic, I would like to direct your attention to this post by Mark E. Smith at the Powerchair Diaries. It’s a thought-provoking post about why we should be cautious in recommending our wheelchair to someone else. I would also like to remind you of what I told you in the first of the posts in this series: your precise medical condition is the determining factor in your choice of wheelchair, and you shouldn’t take on a chair that you can’t handle.

 So far in this series, I’ve talked about the tires on the main wheels of your chair (air-filled for more comfort, solid for easier maintenance) and the types of casters that are available (small for maneuverability, large for comfort on rough surfaces). Today, I’d like to talk a little about wheel camber. Camber refers to the angle between the plane of the main wheels and the frame of the wheelchair. In a standard wheelchair, the camber is 0°: the wheels are parallel to each other, perpendicular to the ground. In some models, particularly those for sports, there is a positive camber: the tops of the wheels are closer together, the bottoms are farther apart, and the wheels are at an angle to the ground. (more…)