Trading Spaces

Was your first ride affordable, bulky, and generic? Have you traded up? If not, it might be time to do so. But beware—it may not be as easy to get what you're looking for.

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Before we look at what the wheelchair manufacturers have on the market today, SNS presents a pair of articles...



Functional, Yet Fashionable
by Tammy Wilber

It's difficult to believe how fast time flies, and it's even harder to believe how fast it goes by when you have a spinal-cord injury (SCI). Maybe it's because I'm just so fast in my wheelchair it makes time go by quicker—but probably not!

I'm 32 and have used a wheelchair as my means of mobility for the past 15 years because of an SCI. I had a car accident at the prime age of 17, and on July 18, 1993, the last place I ever walked on this earth was at a McDonald's in Epping, N.H.

I got my license the day I turned 16 and was the only one among my friends who had a car, and I was very proud of it. It was a 1983 Chrysler LeBaron, dark blue inside and out. The tape deck was on the floor, and it had a blue velvet interior—but that didn't matter. I had freedom. I named the car the Blue Bomber and drove it into the ground. By my junior year of high school, I got a 1990 Chevy Beretta, which was a better fit for me. It was a reddish color and in good condition. It went faster and even was kind of sporty. I was happy with my Beretta.

Then, I totaled it when I rolled it over three times in the median of a highway. I lost control while going 75-80 mph. A bee was in my car, so I was distracted and wasn't paying attention to the road as it curved. I went off the road and that's when the car flipped, throwing me from the vehicle. I remember looking up at the blue sky and hearing some voices. All I knew was that I couldn't get up.

After that I had all the routine tests. The results? A complete break of the fifth and sixth thoracic vertebrae. I was paralyzed. The next few months were a blur with surgeries, rehabilitation, and learning everything all over again. It was a whirlwind of major life changes in such a short period of time.

Now it's 15 years later, but to me it seems like it was just yesterday I was running around the soccer field, walking on the beach, and driving the Blue Bomber. I have such vivid memories of the last three weeks of my life as an able-bodied person. I can tell you what I was doing and who I was with from July 1 through July 18. I hold on to those memories because it was not only a very happy time in my life but also a time I never want to forget.

In a couple of years I will have spent half my life in a wheelchair. That's strange to think about because being 17 seems like it was just yesterday.

Although my life turned out completely different from what I had imagined, I've done some of the most amazing things and met some of the most amazing people due to my SCI. It was something that changed my life forever.


Tammy relates the positives in her life the past 15 years.



Take Action!
by Rory Cooper, PhD

Some of us wore out our first pair of tires in the dark ages when very few wheelchair options were available, and none of them would be considered "good" by today's standards or expectations. Fortunately, a few pioneers took the initiative and started to create the "sports chair," which revolutionized our mobility.

Many of those early innovators graced the pages of Sports 'n Spokes as athletes and had the foresight to not only attain greater athletic heights for themselves, but also to open doors for others. While the list is too exhaustive to name them all, a few of the more recognizable people are Marilyn Hamilton, Jeff Minnebraker, Bob Hall, Jim Martinson, Bo Lindquist, and George Murray. (Some might even include me in this list.) Their legacy extends to this day in the brands such as Quickie, Top End, and Etac. However, their impact has influenced us all and inspired subsequent generations of inventors and entrepreneurs.

Power of Language

It might be hard to imagine, but there was considerable reluctance among the medical community to accept and recommend sports chairs. Remnants of these old beliefs still exist today. The moniker "sports chair" was used to create barriers to receiving insurance coverage for these high-performance ultralight manual wheelchairs. By being a "sports chair," it was by definition not medically necessary and therefore elective or a convenience item. So, people had to pay out of pocket. Fortunately many people did, simply because the chairs were so much better than the alternatives offered by insurance companies and the medical community.

These early adopters were able to demonstrate the benefits and slowly win over a cadre of therapists and physicians to advocate for ultralight wheelchairs. It took nearly two decades and a lot of hard work to shrug off the mantle of "sports chair," transform to "ultralight wheelchair," and obtain coding and coverage for Medicare. While the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), although also slow to adopt the transformative innovations, and other insurance providers had become enlightened earlier, the effect was not the same. Essentially, nearly every insurance company or wheelchair provider follows Medicare's lead.

Today, an ultralight wheelchair is defined as a manual chair that: — Weighs 25 pounds or less, complete without cushion — Has adjustment for fore-aft axle position, seat angle, and backrest angle and height (Or, these positions may be pre-selected to custom fit the user for a chair made for a specific individual.) — Includes a selection of wheel and caster options — Has wheels with quick-release axles if the frame is nonfolding

Many therapists and physicians were not supportive, and some even opposed sports chairs as being too unstable, overly lightweight, and without sufficient accessories (e.g., armrests, cupholders, anti-tippers). Even after the ultralight wheelchairs received coding and reimbursement, it took another 5-10 years for the education of clinicians to catch up to the point where wheelchair users could have ready access to someone knowledgeable in the fitting and training of ultralight chairs. Arguably, there are still too few of these people today, and by some accounts the number is dwindling.


Find out more about how fragile the wheelchair reimbursement and manufacturing environment is right now.

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