Modification and performance evaluation of height adjustable paraplegic wheelchair

摘要

The height adjustable wheel chair focuses on meeting the needs of paraplegics' patients and the poor disabled persons who desire to perform certain tasks independently and privately, such as picking items from shelves, cupboard and wardrobes at the standing height of average human being. Hence, an appropriate wheelchair to meet their need has been designed using low cost and readily available materials to achieve this product. The existing wheelchair was evaluated before its modification was done in justifying the established improvement. To achieve this, the wheel chair was redesigned with a low centre of gravity to enhance stability with the introduction of sizeable hydraulic jack to aid height adjustment. Performance evaluation of the developed wheelchair was carried out to ensure standardization in meeting the needs of the intended users. On basis of ease of operation to a chosen height of 2m using pulses generated, 79 pulses/ minutes was recorded for the improved wheelchair as against the 95 pulses/minutes of the existing wheelchair. Also it takes 28 seconds and 36 seconds for the modified and existing wheelchairs to reach the set height respectively. It offers confinement for adjustment to desired height position and provides mobility while at chosen elevated position.