Wheelchair Diffusion blog

I’m just getting your attention. That sweet looking rigid wheelchair on the top banner has turned out to be quite a distraction around here. Most visitors who come here have never seen it before. Let me fill you in on it.

That beauty is the BT Ballistic, and they are manufactured one at a time by Lasher Sport, LLC. Lasher Sport is a new player based in Anchorage, Alaska. They offer a line of custom made rigid frame wheelchairs with no plastic and machined fittings.

What do I like at first glance? Cool looks, attitude, and they come dressed to kill. Okay, you can go back to eyeballing the Tribal over on the left.

I have been watching this one for quite some time. Inspired by the special needs of his daughter, designer Dan Everard developed a very unique powerchair with a seating system that has amazing excursion and range. These powered wheelchairs have seats with elevating ranges that go from ground level to almost 31″ upward.

The user of the wheelchair is right up front looking at and dealing with the world in a face to face fashion, and better positioned to interact with others and accomplish tasks. Kids with special mobility needs can interact and participate in activities at the ground level and up, from a powerchair.

Dragon, DragonFly, and SnapDragon powerchairs are being sold in the UK by Dragonmobility.

I can tell that a bad time is cooking up. I just stuck my nose out to sniff the wind and got a dose of this foul smelling odor that is emanating from the CMS kitchen. Smells like the chefs at Medicare are cooking up another serving of bad news for wheelchair users. This will mean more meetings and more strategizing, a run down to Medicare’s kitchen in Baltimore for a taste of the slop, and ultimately a four star stomach ache.

I don’t mind doing the advocacy thing. No, actually I enjoy it. It’s just that the stakes are pretty high these days and no matter how well you glaze the doughnuts you just can’t cover all of the holes.

Disappointed in the high-tech and cutting edge power wheelchair that you thought would turn your life around? I get loads of complaints about new power wheelchairs that perform poorly, can’t get out of their own way, are difficult to control, and in general make you regret dumping that old cruiser you previously had.

Stop cursing long enough to give your wheelchair technician a call. Many of today’s power wheelchairs come with programmable controllers. Plug the programmer into the controller and things like speed, joystick sensitivity, braking, acceleration, turning speed, tracking, and scores of other tweaks are easily accomplished.

A hint- New power wheelchairs come with generic middle of the road settings. Have the controller custom programmed to you and to your environment not to the dealer’s technician and showroom.

I receive a large number of emails regarding screws and bolts coming loose on wheelchairs.

An easy fix- Get over to your local hardware or home supply store and buy a tube of Loc-Tite. A small tube since you only need one drop per bolt. Place a drop on the threads, run that bad boy in, tighten, wait a short while, and no more runaway hardware.