Leadership - Wheelchair Companies

Wheelchair

We're normal people. Don't be scared because we are in a chair. People don't understand that. They think, 'Oh, a wheelchair, something's wrong with their heads, something's just not right.' Well yeah, we may be a little twisted, but no more than anyone else.-Mark Zupan. The wheel chair has been around since the eighteen hundreds, the first patent was issued in 1869. The wheel chair is one of the coolest, and simplest inventions of its time. Since its invention it has changed so many people’s lives. It is used to help people who struggle walking around to get to places due to illness, injury, or disability. When it was first introduced the wheelchair was all manual, to operate it the person in the chair would have to turn the rear wheels by hand relying completely on upper body strength to operate it. We’ve come a long way since then, today we have electrical wheelchairs that have motors and controllers in them to make it a lot easier to get around.

Wheelchair companies have made a lot of advancement in the past few years due to high demand. According to kdsmartchair.com there are an estimated 3.3 Million wheelchair users in the United States and the number is increasing every year. The reason wheelchair users is increasing and will continue to increase is due to the large need among the baby boomer generation.  The wheelchair industry is estimated to be a $2.9 Billion market for the manual wheelchair and $3.9 Billion for the power wheelchair by 2018. Growing wheelchair users means society has to adopt.

 America is one of the best countries for wheelchair users, 98% of public transit buses in the United States are equipped with wheelchair accessible ramps. There are also many laws in place to insure wheelchair users get the special treatment they deserve such as public parking spots, elevators, ramps, and many more.  Article 9, ‘Accessibility’, of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, states that: all parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure people with disabilities are treated equally to others. This includes ‘the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility’, as well as: ‘developing and monitoring the implementation of minimum standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services open or provided to the public.’

The statistics and laws make it sound like the United States is the perfect place for someone in a wheelchair, some says otherwise. An interview conducted with a student here at Fort Hays State University said, “It is common for the bus drivers to not stop for him, some busses are ill-equipped for wheelchairs.” So far in 2015 he has been denied access to catching a bus five times in different locations. So why it is that study shows 98% of public transit buses in the United States are equipped with wheelchair accessible ramps but students like Mike are repeatedly being denied access on public transits?

Physiologist professor Herrman at Fort Hays State University says, “It is impossible to understand what it is like to be disabled and feel the physical or mental pain they are experiencing no matter how much studies are done.” Therefor most of society will never know what it is that someone on a wheelchair is going thru. While we may never truly understand their experience in a wheelchair we as a society should always be open minded and open to new ideas to make this world a comfortable place for all of us.

Day in a Wheelchair

Who would have ever taught I would have spent my Saturday in a wheelchair wheeling around everywhere. Thanks to my friend Troy who had a wheelchair laying around in his basement I was able to do my voice paper and put myself in the situation. Not going to lie being in a wheelchair was a very challenging but somewhat fun at first. But lucky for me I was used to that. My day in a wheelchair was like running. I love running and I find its fun at first then it gets more challenging when you start running more miles at a faster pace.

A day in the wheelchair felt like a day in the gym. A wheelchair requires so much more strength than I had ever imagined. Me being a runner I lack a lot of upper body strength. I was able to get by the first few hours but then it got ugly. My arms and shoulders were getting sore and I kept questioning myself why I got myself into this mess when the afternoon came around.  I kid you not it got to a point where I would randomly stop just so I can rest and stretch my arms. I am not even sure how I am typing right now my shoulders are still sore.