Sep 27 2008
This chair was made for traveling pt. 4: Handle With Care
In the first few parts of this series (1, 2 and 3), I dealt with the wheel options for a manual wheelchair. Today, I’d like to talk about a minor but nonetheless important part of the chair: the handles. As mentioned, you should always choose wheelchair parts primarily according to your physical and medical situation, and then according to your lifestyle. Provided your body can cope with the choices you make, you are free to mix and match any number of parts to assemble your perfect wheelchair, but there is no part that can be chosen without some thought about your physical requirements: from the wheels all the way to the handles, you need to consider each part carefully.
On my last two wheelchairs, I chose not to have handles. Many of my friends would say this is further evidence of how stubborn I am: I much prefer getting around under my own steam, and you can’t push a wheelchair that has no handles. Well, you can, but it’s more difficult, because there’s nothing to grab onto, especially on a low-back wheelchair of the type I prefer. However, that is not the reason I chose not to have handles.
