The Wheelchair Guide

Wheelchairs are a very well known type of home medical equipment and aside from canes or crutches, likely one of the oldest types of mobility aids. However, the wheelchairs or a thousand years ago are of a much different style than those used today, with most manual wheelchairs being based off of a 80 year old wheelchair design.

Selecting the right kind of wheelchair, which includes choosing between a manual or electric, as well as traditional or sports, is not always easy. A great deal depends on the abilities and needs of the wheelchair user, although cost is also a factor.

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A mobility scooter can be a powerful tool for those who are mobility challenged, making it much easier to get around both indoors and outdoors. This type of home medical equipment is intended to help improve accessibility both indoors and outdoors, offering a service that differs from that of a wheelchair. Electric Mobility Scooters are very common today and are often used by seniors and others who have difficulty walking.

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There are many different brands of mobility scooters and it can be quite confusing when trying to find a mobility scooter that fits your needs and budgets. One way to help making finding the right mobility scooter easier is to learn a little bit about how they are classified. There are three categories of scooters, Travel Scooters, Traditional Scooters, and Mobility Scooters, under which most adult scooters can be classified.

Understanding the differences between these types of scooters can help make selecting the right type much easier.

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The wheelchair remains to be one of the most well known and common types of mobility aids. Covered by Medicare and certain other types of insurance, the modern wheelchair is typically modeled after the first E&J wheelchair, which features a hollow metal tube design and folding frame. Electric wheelchairs, or power chairs, are also popular, as using a manual wheelchair does require a good deal of effort, especially over long periods of time.

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Electric mobility scooters are very popular among the elderly, but are used by people of all ages. A mobility scooter provides an alternative to an electric wheelchair and often costs considerably less, but they are not a direct substitution. Instead, mobility scooters are typically designed to be a supplement to walking.

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Manual wheelchairs are quite popular and many people prefer them despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that they are much more strenuous to use than an electric wheelchair. Manual wheelchairs often share a similar design, which can be traced back around 80 years or so to the first E&J Wheelchair, developed by the Everest and Jennings Company.

However, today, sports wheelchairs are becoming very popular, which share many similarities with a standard manual wheelchair design, but are also quite different.

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Wheelchair lifts are a powerful tool that are used to allow a person using a wheelchair or mobility scooter to easily access a staircase. Wheelchair lifts, which are often referred to as porch lifts or vertical platform lifts, are very similar to elevators, but unlike a residential elevator, the vertical platform lift is a single self contained unit, so installation is much simpler and less expensive. Wheelchair lifts are an alternative to wheelchair ramps, but are more expensive than a wooden wheelchair ramp.

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If you were to take a look at a wheelchair from several hundred years ago, you would be hard pressed to find many similarities to a modern wheelchair, aside from the basic function that is. Today’s wheelchairs are much more durable and designed to standards that have been built upon for around a hundred years.

There are two basic types of wheelchairs, manual or electric, with determining which one to use being largely based upon the needs and capabilities of the rider. There are advantages to manual wheelchairs, just as there are advantages and disadvantages to electric wheelchairs, so it is not a decision that should be taken lightly.

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The mobility scooter, or adult scooter is a powerful asset to those who have difficulty walking. Mobility scooters provide a motorized way to make getting around easier, making them very popular among the elderly. Using a rechargeable battery, many can travel over 10 miles on a single charge, but his varies by model.

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Shopping for any type of home medical equipment can be quite difficult, as the industry is filled with commission based salesman, who only get paid if you buy a product from you. As a result, they are often more concerned with selling you something that selling you what you need. This is true of all types of home medical equipment, with mobility scooters being no exception.

Since it is so easy to fall victim to a high pressure sale job, it is important to learn as much as possible about mobility scooters before calling up a medical supply company.

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