Citation

Simpson RC, Lopresti EF, Cooper RA. J. Rehabil. Res. Dev. 2008; 45(1): 53-72.

Affiliation

Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Forbes Tower, Suite 5044, Pittsburgh, PA 15238-2887. ris20@pitt.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

18566926

Abstract

Independent mobility is important, but some wheelchair users find operating existing manual or powered wheelchairs difficult or impossible. Challenges to safe, independent wheelchair use can result from various overlapping physical, perceptual, or cognitive symptoms of diagnoses such as spinal cord injury, cerebrovascular accident, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and cerebral palsy. Persons with different symptom combinations can benefit from different types of assistance from a smart wheelchair and different wheelchair form factors. The sizes of these user populations have been estimated based on published estimates of the number of individuals with each of several diseases who (1) also need a wheeled mobility device and (2) have specific symptoms that could interfere with mobility device use.

Language: en