Improved aids for the mobility disabled
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1989
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University of Melbourne
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Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences Collected Works
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PhD thesis
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Thesis (PhD) -- University of Melbourne, Faculty of Medicine, 1990
Includes bibliographical references.
Thesis (PhD) -- University of Melbourne, Faculty of Medicine, 1990
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
This thesis reviews the anatomy and physiology necessary for an understanding of the causes of mobility disability. It then reviews the congential defects, the diseases and the injuries that can cause mobility disability. Also, the problems, remaining abilities, needs and aspirations of the mobility disabled. Anthropometric data which is relevant to the designing of aids for the mobility disabled follows. There is a brief description of many different existing or proposed mobility aids particularly those which can move the occupant from a sitting to a standing position. There is also a brief evaluation of some of these aids.
Various ideas. for a new mobility aid are presented and one of the ideas, a standing wheelchair, is selected for further development. The various stages in the development of a manually-operated standing wheelchair are described. This wheelchair enables a paraplegic, by winding a handle, to move his lower legs through a large angle, from sitting with his feet raised to having his feet tucked under his seat ready for standing. It also enables him by winding another handle, to move from a sitting position to a standing position. While he is standing he can still be mobile because his feet are clear of the floor and the handwheels for travelling, and the brake lever, rise with the back of the chair and so remain within easy reach. The wheelchair is quite stable on level surfaces even when the occupant is standing. The wheelchair can also move the occupant to other interesting positions. An evaluation of this standing wheelchair shows that it suffered from a number of disadvantages, mainly it was too heavy and bulky, it had no adjustment for the size of the user and it could not be used by quadriplegics.
There follows a discussion of the features that would be desirable in a powered wheelchair designed to be suitable for both indoor and extensive outdoor use, and to enable any wheelchair user, even if a quadriplegic, to move from a sitting to a standing position or otherwise change posture. The features include: size adjustments which would make it suitable for most adults, height changing, tilting from side-to-side and fore-and-aft, and self-levelling. Finally there are some design ideas for an experimental powered wheelchair which will incorporate many of the desirable features and thus result in a greatly improved wheelchair which could give some mobility-disabled people much improved mobility and better quality of life.
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People with disabilities -- Transportation, Orthopedic apparatus, Wheelchairs.