Merlin's 'invalid or gouty chair' and the origin of the self-propelled wheelchair.

Wheelchairs are a major advance in enabling independence for people with walking difficulties. The first self-propelled wheelchair has been attributed to John Joseph Merlin, the 'ingenious mechanick', in the early 19th century and his 'gouty chair' is exhibited at Kenwood House. Research would suggest that comparable chairs existed in France as early as 1751 and the French Revolutionary, Georges Couthon, used one to get around Paris. A later design, also attributed to Merlin, the invalid wheelchair, features large wheels with outer hoops for the occupant to grasp and this is the true ancestor of the modern wheelchair.

And they shall walk: ideal versus reality in polio rehabilitation in the United States.

This essay explores the significance that rehabilitation physicians and polio patients in the United States put on recovering the ability to walk. Polio often paralyzed or severely weakened the legs of those who contracted the disease. Regaining the ability to walk was thus a significant measure of recovery from the disease. However, walking meant more than the physical act itself. Regaining the ability to walk meant, in a symbolic sense, that one was no longer disabled, that one had again become normal. This attitude was shared by rehabilitation specialists and patients alike. This essay examines this attitude and the cultural values it embodied through a study of the efforts of selected polio survivors to learn to walk again and of the rehabilitation literature that held walking as an ideal. It also explores what happened when polio patients were unable to walk again because of the severity of their paralysis.

SMARTWheel: From concept to clinical practice.

Wheelchair prescription is complex with thousands of choices and options. Theoretically, a higher quality or innovative wheelchair that is appropriately matched to the user and their unique needs will increase participation. It is well accepted that there is an alarmingly high incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome, and rotator cuff injuries among manual wheelchair users. Since the initial conceptualization, the SMART(Wheel) was intended to better understand the physiological and physical effects of wheelchair propulsion on the body. Initially, little was known about wheelchair propulsion and the SMART(Wheel) transformed the nascent field of wheelchair propulsion biomechanics. Although still an important area of clinical research, the SMART(Wheel) has been critical to the study of the relationship between the type of wheelchair, set-up, activity, technique, anatomy, and physiology and repetitive strain injury. There has been growing evidence that the wheelchair-user interaction explains a substantial portion of the risk of developing a degenerative injury and on community participation. A noteworthy contribution of this work was the release of the clinical practice guideline, entitled, Preservation of Upper Limb Function Following Spinal Cord Injury in 2005. The SMART(Wheel) has been used by other scientists in areas that were not originally envisioned to be applications. It has been used to support the design of tools for developing a trail mapping rating and description system. It has also supported the design of accessible pedestrian walkways standards, accessible playground surfaces, and to evaluate carpets for wheelchair accessibility. It is likely that there are more new areas of exploration to emerge. This article describes the evolution of the SMART(Wheel) as new technologies became available and its applications in the field of wheelchair biomechanics and clinical service delivery.

Smart wheelchairs: A literature review.

Several studies have shown that both children and adults benefit substantially from access to a means of independent mobility. While the needs of many individuals with disabilities can be satisfied with traditional manual or powered wheelchairs, a segment of the disabled community finds it difficult or impossible to use wheelchairs independently. To accommodate this population, researchers have used technologies originally developed for mobile robots to create "smart wheelchairs." Smart wheelchairs have been the subject of research since the early 1980s and have been developed on four continents. This article presents a summary of the current state of the art and directions for future research.

A short history of powered wheelchairs.

This article recounts some early findings on a history of powered wheelchairs in the 20th century from an analysis of archival materials, oral accounts, and secondary sources. The primary goal of this article is not to provide the definitive history of powered wheelchairs, but rather to further our understanding of wheelchair innovation through a historical analysis. The paper sheds light on some of the richness and complexities involved in powered wheelchair innovation, highlights the nonlinearity of that process, and explores the roles of and the relationships between social and technological change. Although it is evident that powered mobility has revolutionized the life experiences of many disabled people, enabling independence, social interaction, and even the facilitation of socio-psychological development, few have charted the social and technological topography that brought this revolutionary change about. In partially mapping the history of powered wheelchairs, this paper draws attention to the idea that wheelchairs are not simply technical devices, but also social and political machines entwined with socio-political conditions and expectations.