I went to in-service @ Seating Clinic, Shepherd Center today. Shepherd Center is a private non-profit hospital specializing in treatment, care, and rehabilitation of spinal cord injury and disease including multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and other neurological conditions. (I’ll talk more about the Shepherd Center later). In the US, new technology and innovation have been developed to assist disabled persons.The Seattle-based company, MagicWheels Inc, received a federal grant (SBIR: Small Business Innovation Research) to develop a gear function for a manual wheelchair (Not sure if Thailand has this kind of grant).
Basically, this works similar to the gear system in a bicycle. For example, when going uphill or downhill, the low gear will be engaged. However, unlike a bicycle that may has 12 gears, the MagicWheels provides only 2 gears: 1 to 1 (the same as a standard wheel) and 2 to 1 (provides 50% easier pushing).
The rationale behind this is that a standard wheelchair has limited ability when it is propelled in varying terrain such as hill climbing, hill descending, rough/uneven surfaces. In addition, high driving loads must be applied when propelling uphill which can cause repetitive stress injuries to the shoulder and wrist joints. There are some nice features about the MagicWheels such as easily adapts to fit most manual wheelchairs, no width is added, and the weight is less than 10 lbs (per pair).
