So I purchased a drive wheelchair without the knowledge that drive is hospital brand and that the chair is not designed for self propelling. I’m however wondering if there are customizations I can make to it to make it work better as I can not afford a new chair at this moment

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice. I took a card from my church's giving tree and I am having trouble finding the gift request. They ask for "wheelchair gloves with fingertips removed, 4xl, black"? I can find them in the UK but I'm in the US, is there a sizing difference between countries? And does anyone know if a good pair of gloves to recommend?

Hi, does anyone know if there are any UK based Discord servers for wheelchair users, by any chance? many thanks.

Your chair might look a bit uneven when you’re looking at it but if you have an iphone (i’m not sure on android or other phones) if you have the measure app that comes with the phone you can check if it’s level! also sometimes if you don’t sit on your chair your castors may not touch all the time and that’s normal!

TL/DR: I (24, AMAB ) could have ended up needing a wheelchair and I can’t stop thinking that maybe it would have been for the best - is this normal?

Sometimes I ( 24, AMAB ) wonder how different my life could have been…

Due to a congenital condition, I came very close to being wheelchair-bound. So close, in fact, that my Doctors had begun making the necessary preparations for an assessment referral.

Without a doubt, it was sheer luck / chance that I began to walk. I truly believe this…

I have good days - where I have no trouble, and find walking relatively easy - then there are days where it seems like a struggle and getting from Point A to Point B feels like it takes twice as long; often, when I feel like I’m struggling, I think back and wonder what could have happened, if I hadn’t taken those first few steps…?

Given my medical history, I’m extremely lucky - there are people with the same condition, who are far more impacted than me - so I know how it must sound, but I can’t help stop thinking about it…

I'm almost sold on ordering a Lapstacker during their current sale, but one thing is stopping me. It seems like it would be hard to carry food, and that is one of my main needs - to carry food and drink a short distance while at a fast food restaurant, party, and sometimes at home.

I wouldn't really need it for groceries because I already have a method of carrying reusable shopping bags on my lap and hooking them around my backrest to keep them from falling. Same with luggage, I already have a solution for that.

I've watched many videos of the Lapstacker and it seems like it would be unable to carry ready to eat food because the straps would press over the top of the food and there wouldn't be a flat surface for the food to sit on.

Has anyone else tried a lapstacker for carrying food? If you have one, is there any other application where it wasn't able to carry your things?

My son has CP and uses a chair. Looking for a couple of gifts for Christmas and came across the lap stacker (yeah he’s getting fun stuff too…this would fall In to the socks and underwear category of presents ;)) Is it worth the price tag? Does it work? Any other cool nifty add ons I could get for my kiddo? For reference he has a ti lite.

Have any of you used Nature Tracks? It’s a battery powered platform with tracks like a tank. Attaches to the underside of your chair.

https://naturetrack.org/. Expensive but you can borrow one and they have local events

I am trying to make a decision about whether the TiLite ZRA is worth the extra investment over a K Series 2.0. Thoughts?

Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone had any advice for dealing with the cold or rain in a power chair. A little background about me: I’m a male, I have Cerebral Palsy, and I’m a full-time power wheelchair user with about 80-90% function in my left hand and about 20-30% function in my right hand.

I’ve lived in northern New Jersey all my life with my parents as caretakers. Where I used to live in Jersey, it’d average like 20-30 degrees with lows in the single digits and the occasional snow. Safe to say, I’m used to the cold. However, where I’m going to school in Indiana, it can get well into the negatives and snow for weeks on end, with winter starting in late October and lasting all the way through March.

Fortunately, it hasn’t really snowed or been super cold as of late, but next week it’s going to get down into the 20s and 30s, with it potentially getting into the teens.

My solution in the past has been to have my parents dress me in the appropriate clothing and then, depending on where we’re going, leave my jacket and stuff on if it’s somewhere quick or take it off if we’re there for a while. However, in college, my aides won’t be coming to classes with me, so if I dress warm, I have to keep those clothes on me until I head back to my dorm.

My issue with this is it gets hot in my classes, and I don’t want to be the only jackass in cold weather gear when everyone in my class takes theirs off. Luckily, the walk from my dorm to my classes takes about 30 seconds outside, as all my classes are in one building.

So far, I’ve just been wearing sweats and an undershirt and a sweatshirt, and this has been fine. However, I don’t want to be confined to just sweats, as they’re not always the most fashionable. Aside from my classes, I spend a lot of time at another campus that’s a 10-15 minute walk from my dorm, with buildings much more spread out than my very small campus where my dorm and classes are.

I’ve been looking at wheelchair cold weather gear like ponchos and things, and they don’t seem very fashionable, and they look like they’d make me stand out, which is a big no from me. Big jackets don’t seem to be the solution, as they’re clunky and ugly. I have a couple of wool sweaters and a puffer jacket along with a stadium jacket.

Also, on the pants front, I’ve semi-recently started using a condom catheter with a leg bag and just found out that none of my lined sweatpants work with the leg bag and cath. I’m looking to get the bag mounted on my chair, then cut a small hole in my pants so I can run the tube from the condom to behind my knee, then through said hole to the bag on my chair.

Any ideas as for things I can do?

i see posts frequently on here about random strangers giving the same kind of wheelchair "quips" to users out in public. (too young, racing, license, etc) i've been in a wheelchair since i was young, (spinal cord injury) and in my many years of being in a wheelchair, i've only heard something like this once? maybe twice? also, even when i was a child and had push handles, i don't think i can count on one hand the amount of times i've been pushed without someone asking. idk if i'm just unapproachable or lucky or what lol. like where are these crazy people that do these things?!?!

URGENT!! hello im at work and two of my spokes broke on my chair and im wondering if its okay to still use it ! i have newton gravity wheels from motion composite pls lmk

Hello, i am up in Scotland central belt and i would like to try a 5k and then maybe a 10k ( on a normal active wheelchair) does anyone knows of any or how to get the info regarding accessibility? I wanted to do the Kelpie one but no information sadly. Any help welcome.

Are most flights wheelchair accessible?

Because I dream of going to Los Angeles, London and Germany.

I've never flown before or even had a passport, what's the process like?

I was at Pike Place with my partner and we needed to get back to our car. If there’s one thing to know about downtown Seattle is that there are crazy steep hills everywhere. We took a flat route to get down but it took about 30 minutes. If we walked up one of the steep hills we would save 20 minutes.

My partner had been pushing me and there was no way that they would be able to push me up the hill. Luckily I am ambulatory and can walk medium distances conditionally. I gauged it, decided that I would be uncomfortable and regret it, but that I could walk up it.

As I’m pushing my chair up the hill two random people loudly ask me ‘Yo can we ride that??’ I say ‘Nope!’ And proceeded to wheeze my way up the hill before collapsing into my chair.

What makes people feel like they can ask that? I’m not pushing around a custom wheelchair for fun. (Even though it’s very fun sometimes). Have y’all ever had to deal with that? People are crazy, but I just keep thinking about it lol

This Boomer came up to me and said “aren’t you too young to be in that thing?” And I asked her “aren’t you too old to be worrying about other people?” And she just scoffed at me and walked away.. I was too tired to give my normal sarcastic response. Also, busses are very difficult to wheel up into I discovered.

What would your response be if someone said that to you?

Hi all, I have a TiLite TRA 19x16 and a Tilite TRA 19x17 heavy duty, I'm looking for either a ZRA or TRA that is 18x19, if anyone has one that would like to trade and is located in AZ please let me know!

I recently bought a new SUV so I can transport my spouse’s wheelchair upright; the handles can/probably will rub against the roof and I’d like to avoid that. I’m wondering if anyone has ideas or product that could be put over the handles during driving to cushion them and avoid damaging the roof. I was initially thinking of some kind of cushioned or padded bag that could just slip over both of them, but not finding anything useful. Thanks for any help or ideas

i got my custom chair a week ago and due to the weather in the uk i’ve only just been able to go out in it today. i went on a “walk” with my mum just to and around a park near my house and it was so much harder than i expected. i knew that pushing a wheelchair was difficult but the area looked relatively flat, but i could actually feel even like 1° inclines that i couldn’t even see and it was so strenuous to push. even though we barely got anywhere, once we were on the way back i felt like my arms were about to fall off and i was just rlly irritable and worn out. once i got back i felt physically and mentally like shit. i’m an ambulatory user but i’ve been housebound for months, was bedbound not long ago and i thought a wheelchair would do so much more for me than this. i knew it wouldn’t be a fix for everything and i still struggle to go out for a lot of other reasons but i thought i’d manage more than that. i could barely even get round the block ffs. i mean i couldn’t have walked that far so i guess that’s good, but it was barely anything. i feel like i’m gonna have a flare up now. idk what to do. does it get easier? is it normal to feel like this? i’m just disappointed.

I belong to a club that has bocce ball, but it is in a pit (no ramp into pit). I’ve tried it once and found the people and the game interesting. I just stayed on the edges and rolled from there. The tough part is retrieving the balls. I don’t want to rely on my partner/opponent to get the balls for me. I was looking for ideas. My first thought was a lacrosse stick. The balls are similar(?) so I thought I would work to scoop them up (one at a time). Any other suggestions?

So I’m currently waiting on my new NHS Quickie Argon 2. They put in the order 12 weeks ago and estimated it would take ‘2-3 months’. But I’m sure I saw on here someone comment that Sunrise moved factories or something recently so they were being a bit slower than normal?

My previous Argon 2 (in 2019) took 8 weeks, but I’m assuming pre-pandemic production may have been quicker.

I don’t want to bug the NHS about it, I’m just curious how much longer I might be waiting 😅

i just scheduled my first appointment for a custom wheelchair and i am excited! working towards a fitting this winter if this builder is interested in dealing with my crazy self; with any luck my GPV will get to enjoy a well-earned retirement into “inside chair” status by next summer 🤞

I am very very new to owning a wheelchair. I spent two weeks in the hospital due to severe leg weakness and tremors. It was an absolute horror story and I left with more problems than I came in with. That’s a story for another day.

However since I still have the weakness and tremors I am unable to walk unassisted and was sent home with a walker and a wheelchair. I want to make the seat pink. What would be the best way to go about that? Should I use something like leather paint? Or is there covers I could use? I just want to make this more homey for me if it’s going to become part of my daily life.

Thank you for any suggestions!

For context I'm 15, I can barely walk. I have been limping for years, since I was about 11 and it's gotten worse over time. And now I'm getting diagnosed with pots and Ehler's danlos syndrome. So not a great past few years. The issue is I live in a small village. So with our lack of doctors there's only really one who knows mobility aids and all that. He's old, just as a statement. Everytime I've had him as a doctor everything gets blamed on anxiety or my age. I switched doctors and suddenly I'm getting told about what's actually wrong.

So in short he refuses to let me see my options for mobility aids. Through NHS. He barely listens, asked me one question. How much I've been eating and immediately told me to get a blood test for Addison's. Which makes no sense because I'm not over the age of thirty, my last blood test (which was barely a month ago) came back completely normal. Better than ever. So can I have some advice on how to handle this type of doctor? Or if there's something to do online to get mobility aid help? Cause I haven't left the house at all unless its with my mum. And I just wanna go outside on my own.

basics. How can I get mobility aid help and questions with like actual professionals? And how to deal with a doctor who who ignores the fact you're actually in severe pain. I'm sorry if this is the wrong place I'm feeling horrible and just want answers

• am not selling anything via this post to be super clear *

Just looking for best websites to sell second hand equipment? What’s easiest & most popular for disability equipment? Have some brand new loop wheels that I’d like to sell as need the money more, but as this is so niche I’m wondering where the best place people will look for such equipment is? Thanks.

Has anyone ever paired a control unit to the smoov device, i received my new control unit and i watched the YouTube videos and read the manual but its not pairing, i must be doing something wrong, any help is appreciated.

Do any chairs come with adjustable rear wheel spacing? It doesn't seem to really be advertised on any models so I'm unsure if it's a thing. The Quickie Life appears to come with some axle spacers but I'm unsure if those are designed to be moved around.

I know a lot of chairs come with clamp in camber tubes but I assume those are designed to go in a specific depth, like the Ki Rogue ALX has an option to choosing rear wheel spacing but I assume it's just set when you get it?

I've posted a some about my freewheel never working properly. I could never get the casters to rise no matter how it was adjusted. I have a Tilite Aero T with angle adjustable footplate, and soft roll 5 in casters. I thought my casters were too big and heavy but after I got smaller wheels and found spacers for the new wheel size, I realized my left caster was stuck as both screws were stripped. Maintenance at work fixed that for me after I did nothing for over a year and I got the new wheels on. However after adjusting the freewheel my casters only lifted off the ground when I wasn't sitting in it.

I then gave up again, but then got my casters stuck in the train tracks with the light from the incoming train headed my way. Luckily others helped me but I was scared after that. I can't wheelie, so now I've been going over the tracks backwards but it still is rough. I decided to order another footplate that was tubular.

Tilite wants $350 for their titanium footplate, so I bought the ki mobility one instead for $108. My first try I ordered based on the description, but it was too small. That helped me know how to measure for the right fit. The ki mobility footplate for their 16 in chair with a 1 inch taper fit my tilite 16 in chair with a 2 in taper. I ordered from quickie-wheelchairs.com and they will let me return the wrong part. It went on fine after some silicone lubricant.

I tested it yesterday with the freewheel and it lifted my casters great but had to adjust the fit so it can be done from the chair. Now it's perfect. I've never been able to get the perch to fit tight and if hanging the wheel is in the way of my smoov one, so I got a pickle ball bag for it, but need to see still if it will be in the way of the smoov which sits up pretty high. Do most people use the perch and anyone also have the smoov? According in instructions I should use the round post but I can't find it and don't want to have to order more parts when I know it doesn't work with my smoov anyway.

So I've been on light duty for a while now since I was told I would need to use a wheelchair.

I can stand and walk with difficulty for a few moments (using my cane or crutches) but it's exhausting.

So I have to get medical documentation from all my providers.

The thing is, if this isn't handled well, I could be unofficially taken out of consideration for promotion in the future. Full-time wheelchair users are...well in a large organization it's just me. The few others are part time.

Has anyone else been in this situation? What is the best way to go about it?