Adding a little power assist to manual wheelchairs is one way to cut down shoulder pain in later life and help out on hills, or getting home from the party after one too many. There have been a few different ideas over the years, with small gasoline engines fitted to a wheelchair or hand levers fitted to wheels. Now DPX Systems from Las Vegas have come up with a pretty cool new way to get the go-kart feeling in a wheelchair.
Using a standard electric drill as a motor and means of propulsion they built a transfer unit that easily bolts onto any manual wheelchair and lets you get your freak on without the added noise of a petrol engine. With speeds of between 3 and 12 mph from using that drill you got 3 years ago but have never taken out of the box.
A simple hand throttle lets you go from free wheeling to powered wheeling simply and easily, and the drill provides enough torque to a small fifth wheel under your seat to engage from a standstill.
The system is still in development and isn’t yet universally compatible with every make of manual wheelchair, but if you want one then DPX will custom make it to fit your make and model as they have done previously. No word on price or
It only has a range of around 2 miles per charge using a standard battery, but at the same time it’s not meant to be used as a continuous power source. You continue to manually push the wheels as normal, and get a little push from the power drill whenever you need it, or whenever you feel like making a quick getaway from people asking you if you ‘play basketball in that thing’.
Obviously having an electric drill hanging off the back of your wheelchair might raise a few questions, but could also be pretty cool in a McGyver kind of way. Leading most people to assume that if they were foolish enough to lock you in a disused warehouse you’d soon construct something lethal out of household objects, or play basketball.
In keeping with the fine British tradition of taking to the sea’s, quadriplegic sailor Hilary Lister will be embarking on a solo circumnavigation of the UK in her specially outfitted yacht controlled entirely by her breath using sip and puff technology (and a fair bit of that famous upper lip). Proving not only that sailing is a fully accessible sport for wheelchair users of all abilities, but also that if sip and puff technology were ever to fall into the hands of some evil genius we’d all be doomed.
Hilary has been a quadriplegic for the last 7 years thanks to a progressive degenerative disease called reflex sympathetic dystrophy and has no movement below her neck, but she’s already set sailing records. She became the first quadriplegic sailor to cross the English Channel to France in 2005, and then last year she completed a solo circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight.
Her latest adventure will see her set sail from Dover on the 9th of June, sailing in a clockwise direction around Britain in a series of day sails. A support crew will be following her in a rigid inflatable while a ground crew with two motor-homes will be waiting at port each day.
Each day the team will record her finishing latitude and longitude from her onboard GPS, before heading to land for a good nights sleep. The next day they will tow Hilary back to the exact same point from where she’ll continue her solo effort. The estimated timeframe for completing the complete trip is 3 to 4 months.
She wont be making a complete circumnavigation of the entire UK mainland, but instead missing off the treacherous northern coast by using the Caledonian Canal system from the west to east coast of scotland.
All this from someone who hadn’t even sailed before 2003, and only took up the sport after becoming severely paralysed as a way to feel freedom again, 10,000 pushingthelimits points to you Hilary. Good show.
The British Columbia Mobility Opportunities Society (BCMOS) is a non-profit organisation that aims to allow people with significant physical disabilities the chance to take part in hiking and over night camping. Based in Vancouver BC, Canada BCMOS makes use of the TrailRider all terrain wheelchair, which allows people with severe disabilities and paralysis to get into the wilderness.
A specially designed wilderness access vehicle. With just one wheel directly under the seat, and handles at the back and front for those ever so helpful sherpas, the TrailRider can tackle pretty much any terrain. It’s twice been to the summit of Kilimanjaro and is perfect for high level quadriplegics looking for a way to get off road and do some exploring again.
Not all hikes taken with the TrailRider have to be such extreme or high altitude adventures though. Hikers with disabilities use the TrailRider to visit parks and vacation spots with their able-bodied friends and family members. They’ve used them for fishing trips and school outings, for summer camps and afternoons at the beach and countless fishing trips or just a family afternoon outdoors.
BCMOS offers day hikes, and overnight camping trips if you’re feeling adventurous, in the Pacific National Park which can be booked starting today (21/5/08) through until the end of August.
This is a really great chance for anyone who would otherwise simply not be able to access wilderness area’s to see one of the most beautiful parts of Canada, and the world.
There’s always a few cartoons of wheelchair users floating about, mostly they’re just crap and about as funny as concrete parachute though. Which is why it’s all the more awesome when someone goes and makes a comic strip about a guy in a wheelchair that isn’t just funny but pretty much sums up our attitude to life in a wheelchair perfectly. The fact that the creator is able-bodied just seems to make the whole thing even cooler.
Dizabled is the online comic strip following the exploits of Leeder O. Men, a disabled character who pretty much does what he wants, enjoying the more adventurous and extreme wheelchair activities with an air of cool that we can only dream of.
The character evolved after it’s creator John Lytle spent time as an assistant at an adaptive weight training class and obviously got to know some pretty badass dudes in wheelchairs.
When I started to lift grown men with their wheelchairs buckled to their bodies up to the chin-up bar for fifty pull-ups, I became irreversibly involved. Leeder’s first stunt emerged in my sketch book shortly after.
Not everyone seems to like the strip though, or the fact that John isnt disabled himself, it’s worth checking out his complaint page, which can be just as amusing and entertaining as the comic itself:
“I saw your website last night, being a disABLED person myself, i was really liking it until i read that you’re not a disABLED person… i’m not sure how i feel about a person without any disabilities making cartoons with disABLED characters…… is any of the money you’re making from this going to any kind of charity for disABLED people? have you considered maybe having a disABLED person help you out with these comic strips also?”
“Your website is awful. you are just taking the mick out of disabled people and it is a disgrace. i have a good mind to sue you!!!”
Make sure you check out the strip for yourself and decide if you’re going to smile or sue.
If you live in the UK and all this talk of conquering Kilimajaro on the excellent One-Off Titanium all terrain handcycle has got you eager to try one out yourself then have no fear. Finally there’s an opportunity to rent one for the weekend. If you’re in Scotland or are planning a trip to the Cairngorms National Park (which you really should be) then thanks to Sport Scotland a One-Off is available to be booked at the Glenmore Lodge (also a great wheelchair accessible base for your off road wheelchair adventures).
From June 2008 onwards, the bike can be pre-booked / hired by phoning Glenmore Lodge between 8:30am and 5pm on 01479 861256 or through the Wheel High website. With a ridiculously low cost of £10 per half day, £15 for a full day and £20 for a whole mud-filled weekend, there’s never been a better excuse to visit the Cairngorms.
This is great news for UK based wheelchair users and disabled adventurers in the making who might not otherwise get a chance to try, or even see, one of these amazing handbikes. It also opens up one of the UKs most spectacular national parks for exploration and extends the accessibility of the park for paraplegics and quadriplegics. Great to see that Sport Scotland is shelling out for things like this.
The Glenmore Lodge is a great place for all adventure sports in Scotland with courses and facilities covering pretty much everything and an ideal place to grab lessons for kayaking in particular.
So you want to get out on the rock face and maybe even try climbing El Capitan, rock climbing for paraplegics and quadriplegics with good upper body strength isn’t impossible but you will need some slightly modified equipment to make thing go smoothly.
Normal climbing harnesses are generally not a good idea, the leg loops are too narrow and can easily cut circulation in your legs, especially if you lack feeling in them(which most of us do, lets face it) . Apart from that you also run the risk of slipping out of a normal leg loop and waist belt harness if for some reason you manage to turn upside down. The low tie-in point and the average wheelchair users narrow hips aren’t a good combination.
To combat that problem the best practice is to have either a full body harness, or a waist harness coupled with a chest harness so you have a higher tie-in point. This will give you a more comfortable upright climbing position with less effort, and no chance of slipping out due to the shoulder straps.
But still the problem of thin and narrow straps remain on most multi purpose climbing harnesses, for added comfort and protection it is generally best to go for a big wall harness. These are the type harnesses used by able-bodied climbers doing big multi-pitch and multi-day climbs where they will be spending extended periods of time sitting in the harness. They feature extra wide legs loops and waist belts with lots of padding to relieve pressure.
Mark Wellman, who pretty much invented rock climbing for people in wheelchairs, has gone one stage further and produced a specialist climbing harness specifically for paraplegics and quadriplegics looking for that climbing buzz. A pair of full length over trousers with heavy duty protection against abrasions from grinding against the rock face on the way up are built into a heavily padded big wall harness. These ‘rock chaps’ are what took Mark up El Capitan and are our favorite here at team pushingthelimits.
For extra comfort and protection from pressure related problems when climbing, a great piece of equipment is the Jay Protector, a small gel filled cushion you can strap onto your butt before you sit inside the rock chaps. Great for bumming around on the rocky ground at the base of a climb without worry about getting any sores, cuts or bruises and a valuable piece of pressure distribution when actually climbing.
Chest harnesses usually dont need any adaption of special qualities other than for personal preference and comfort, the most basic work fine, but if you want to be comfortable (tip: dont start climbing!) and like to look cool by hanging tons of gear and pro off harness loops then go with a big wall chest harness too. Yates are a clear leader in big wall gear, and used as the basis of Marks rock chaps, their Big Wall Rack chest harness is more comfortable than our couch.
The act of climbing itself for people in wheelchairs doesn’t involve a whole lot of rock, get used to hauling yourself up the rope rather than looking for the next hand or foot placement. Using a normal rope ascender to make your way up can be pretty frustrating, so use one that has been adapted with a pull-up bar to make those full body heaves more effective (but just as grueling/rewarding).
Thu, Jun 12, 2008
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