Wheelchairs, Getting Through Doorways In

The Third Most Important Point About Being In A Wheelchair

by Robert Garland (myst@onramp.net)
written 07 Jun 1996

This article is classified "Real"


Despite all attempts by modern science to create a wheelchair which is not
blocky, difficult to operate and manage, or uncomfortable to sit in without 
fluffy cushions, they have completely succeeded in making it simple to get 
wheelchairs through doorways - at absolutely no sufficient level whatsoever.

Wheelchairs are by nature designed to move forward or backward, and to
spin to the left or right on its own axis.  There is never a function
on any electric wheelchair which says, "get through this doorway", and
therefore wheelchairs appear to be very diligent in achieving to full
dissatisfaction of the user not to succeed in the attempt.

It is particularly difficult with manually operated wheelchairs.  The user 
must use his or her upper limbs to propel the chair forward by grabbing the 
rims of the two large wheels positioned below his or her arms and turn them 
toward the door.  In order to do this the user must be prepared to get
bruises and scrapes and possibly crushed knuckles as he or she realizes
that the width of the doorway is equal to, or lesser than, the width of the
wheelchair. 

Sometimes this can be simplified by the use of a friend or nurse or idiot
who takes the handles located at the back of the wheelchair and pushes the
user of the wheelchair through the troublesome egress.  

Sometimes this can be simplified by some stranger who wants to get through
the egress but cannot, because there is a wheelchair in the way.  This
stranger can in a pinch act as a friend or nurse or idiot and perform
the same function of pushing the user through the door.  Sometimes these
strangers are very polite.  Sometimes you wonder if their mother loved them.

Sometimes no one comes along and the user is incapable, not only of getting
through the doorway, but, once halfway through the doorway, of backing out
again, because she/he is now jammed into the doorway and cannot break free.
It is at a time like this when it is vitally important for a competent
hitch-hiker to have brought with them a sandwich and a towel.  The sandwich
is useful to keep the user's strength up while he/she waits to be rescued.
The towel makes a very good pillow when rolled up and put between the
back of the head and the doorframe, for when she/he tires of keeping his/her
strength up while waiting to be rescued.

More self-sufficient users of wheelchairs will cuss a few times, lift 
themselves out of the wheelchair, and throw themselves to the ground.  At
this point they will use one arm to steady themselves into a seal-like 
position, and the other hand to carefully coax the unwilling wheelchair 
through the doorway.  The lower limbs usually decide to play a game of poker
while this is happening, as they are uninterested in being reminded how 
annoyingly useless they have become for their owner, and have long since 
gotten over feeling guilty about it. 

Once successfully free of the doorway, the user now confronts a completely 
new dilemma:  getting back into the wheelchair.  The solution lies in
applying the brake switches to the wheels, but many have forgotten to
perform this action, all to very unhealthy results.

See also:
  • Means Of Transportation For The Earth-Confined Hitchhiker
  • Wheelchair, Getting Out Of A
  • Quantum Mechanics Of Sandwiches In Lunchboxes
  • Towels
  • Wheelchairs
  • Wheelchair, Definition Of A

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