Wheelchair Diffusion blog

Just out this week from Lasher Sport LLC are two new lightweight rigid frame wheelchairs. Both have Magnesium alloy frames and center of gravity adjustability.

BT-Mg-AS
The BT-Mg-AS is a lightweight wheelchair with front and rear suspension and center of gravity adjustability. The rear wheel center of gravity adjustment allows center of gravity placement from 1.5″ to 4.5″. The center of gravity is easily adjusted by the user and can be done in under 5 minutes with only a single wrench. The BT-Mg-AS cuts down on weight by utilizing magnesium frame construction, high tech laminated carbon fiber sailcloth for seating material, titanium hardware, Spinergy Light Extreme rear wheels, and Frog Legs front and rear elastic-polymer suspension to dampen shock. Transport weight is 12.6 pounds for a 16″ x 16″ fame and 19.7 pounds for the entire chair including the rear wheels. More specifications.

BT-Mg-A
The BT-Mg-A is a magnesium frame and backrest chair similar in style to the base BT-Mg except the center of gravity is adjustable by up to an inch of forward and rearward travel in half inch increments. The BT-Mg-A cuts down on weight by utilizing high tech laminated carbon fiber sailcloth for seating material, titanium hardware, Spinergy Light Extreme rear wheels, and Frog Legs Uni-tine caster forks. Transport weight is 9.8 pounds for a 16″ x 16″ fame and 16.9 pounds for the entire chair including the rear wheels. More specifications.

 
My take on this
It looks like Lasher Sport has made a strong commitment to producing magnesium frame wheelchairs by upping their line of magnesiums to three.

The addition of center of gravity (COG) adjustability should pay off for end users who want to fine tune or customize wheelchair balance and handling. The addition of suspension on the AS should go a long way in smoothing out rides and helping get over some terrain that is lightly rough or even. These features do add some component/hardware weight to the chairs but both of these wheelchairs still weigh in well under the traditional “lightweight” poundage.

If necessity is mother to anything that remotely resembles invention then all wheelchair users would certainly be sitting pretty. The reality for wheelchair users is that necessity is a mother, but not the kind gray haired type that hooks you up with homemade chicken soup every time you cough or sneeze.

Wheelchair users understand necessity very well. For most people the necessities are food, shelter, some degree of security, and the other common everyday needs. For wheelchair users there is one more very important necessity. Mobility, in the form of an appropriate wheelchair, that is suitable for use in their indoor and outdoor environment, and that enhances quality of life and supports their chosen lifestyle. Wheelchair users also understand and live with the consequences of this need going unfulfilled- Immobility, confinement, inequality, and despair.

Oh, the necessity is there alright. The problem is not tied to any lack of it. The problem is with society. Society has not yet become a real mother. She has not yet given birth to the inventions that would resolve all of this. These inventions are changes in our society that would afford wheelchair users the mobility equipment that they need. Not based on a funder’s capitation scheme or by the calendar on the agency wall, but based on pure and simple necessity.

Our society should not disable people for lack of basic necessities such as wheelchairs and other mobility devices. When this happens it is time for us all to invent a solution.

I have just posted a great video about United Spinal. Actually, it’s much more than that. It’s full of personal insights from adults and children who have a spinal cord injury or disease.

Give it a look when you have a few minutes. It’s a well made video production and is hosted by actor Michael York. It’s a large file so please allow some time for it to load.

Enjoy!

I recently posted a disability quiz for readers to take. This led to a very interesting comment post which referenced a disability model. Of course my reply referenced even more disability models. All of this can get very confusing so I thought that I might clear some of this up in an up-front post on the two model forerunners.

Disability models are not unlike the more common models associated with commerce, education, or even government. They are a set of concepts which people believe in and promote. These concepts help to define and give purpose to a cause or project. They help supporters and advocates develop strategies for resolving disability related issues and by their nature can often act as a best practice set for implementing and sustaining an effort.

The following concept descriptions are very rudimentary. The reality is that most are extremely complex. It would take volumes to cover each one of these.

The Medical Model of Disability-
This concept views Disability as a result of a person’s physical or mental limitations. It makes no strong connection to issues such as society’s attitudes or environmental accessibility. This model is based on concepts and language developed primarily by clinicians and health organizations.

The front-line strategies in this model revolve around curing or eliminating the physical impairment or supplying the appropriate level of care/treatment when cure or remedy is not possible. In this model an individual with an impairment is described as a “Person with a disability” since the disability is considered to be an attribute of the individual.

The Social Model of Disability-
This model views disability as a result of social barriers and physical barriers in the environment. Inaccessible environments, negative social attitudes, lack of inclusion, and other elements all contribute to disabling people. In short, society is not meeting its obligation to a segment of the population by allowing these barriers to exist. Individuals who can not overcome these barriers are rendered disabled and are denied equality.

An individual may have impairments but they are disabled only when they encounter these barriers. Remove the social and environmental barriers and you have removed the disability.

Contrary to the Medical Model, the Social Model aims to fix society rather than fix the individual and thereby make everyone an equal participant. It therefore looks toward social and political solutions as opposed to clinical remedies.

In theory the Social Model is similar in many ways to the civil rights movements of the middle 20th century. It has evolved from very similar beliefs regarding the rights of a minority. These rights include self determination, equality, inclusion, and equal opportunity.

Many Social supporters prefer the term “disabled person” since the disability is considered to be imposed by society rather than being an attribute of the individual.

My unsolicited take on this
We have no choice but to move forward on disability related issues. I don’t think the model names really matter that much and I also believe that many of the concepts behind these names will change or be modified over time. As things develop, as strategies change, as wins and losses are racked up, concepts will need to be adjusted and changed.

My wheelchair take-
Since this is a wheelchair blog I’ll also offer this up. In the Medical Model supplying an appropriate wheelchair to an individual would be considered a component of treating the individual. In the Social Model it would be removal of a barrier to inclusion.

My concept top pick-
My personal favorite is the barriers as a disability component of the Social Model. It removes the need to sort people out by clinical diagnosis and it’s a great unifying concept. Everyone starts off equal and no one starts off disabled.

The wrap-
What is important right now is that people join in and advocate for change. Preferences in models will most often boil down to personal perspective on an issue. Facilitating change, well, that’s all about numbers and loud voices.

If you are into models of disability and want to dig further you can try these-
Social adapted model, Individual model, Economic model, Religious model, Tragedy/Sympathy model.

I probably missed a few but trust me, they are somewhere out there.

Thanks go out to Sacha for kicking this very important topic into play.

So you’re with it when it comes to disability etiquette and awareness? Then I have a double dare for you-

Go take this insanely easy Action Awareness Quiz on Disability?

After you take the quiz come back and post your score in the comments section.

The Quiz-
15 easy questions on disability.

The Rules-
There are none.

The Prizes-
There are none of those either.