If you or a family member suddenly face mobility issues, you’ll quickly immerse yourself in a world with a surprisingly steep learning curve.
Granted, if you’re in a hurry and need to gain some mobility immediately, you can get any available accessibility chair but understand that your purchase will be very much hit or miss. If you get lucky, maybe the wheelchair you buy will meet your needs, but most likely, it will not.
Our recommendation on that front is to rent something to meet your immediate needs and then spend time doing some research so that when you make a purchase, you can be assured that what you ultimately buy will match your specific needs.
This page was written to provide people in your situation with a concise resource page to help shortcut the research process, making it simple and easy to zero in on the right wheelchair for you.
Wheelchair Measurement
The simplest and best way is to take two careful measurements. These are:
- Seat Depth: Take this measurement from the back of the user’s bottom to the midpoint of the back of the knee.
- Seat Width: For an optimal fit, measure the hips of the person who will be using the chair from outer edge to outer edge, and then add 2.”
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Seat to Floor Height: No measurement is needed here, but keep the following in mind.
- If you’re under 5’ tall, the optimal seat to floor height for you is 14” to 16″
- If you’re 5’ tall to about 6’, your optimal seat to floor height is 17” to 18”
- If you’re taller than 6′, a seat to floor height of 19” to 21” is your best bet
Which one is right for you ultimately depends on your budget, personal preferences and how you intend to use your chair, but here are some general guidelines and rules of thumb:
Transport Chairs
As the name of this chair indicates, this type of chair is optimized for those who spend a lot of time on the go. This type of chair makes a relatively poor chair for home use or spending extended periods in. It’s also a poor choice for those who want to venture off the beaten track and spend time traversing rugged terrain.
Given those limitations, you might be wondering what it’s actually good for. It’s a fair question. The short answer is that the transport chair is an ideal choice for people with light to moderate mobility issues who need something to help them get around in public spaces.
If you need a wheelchair to go shopping in, or something you can use for a trip to the mall, this is your go-to choice. Its lightweight and small folded footprint makes it easy to carry with you just about anywhere, unfold it and go enjoy a short stint out.
As long as you keep to flat, level, and preferably paved or indoor surfaces, this is an awesome option. Bear in mind though, that transport chairs typically offer little to nothing in the way of padding or support, so if you need a chair for use for extended periods of time over the course of any given day (say anything more than two hours at a stretch), this type of chair becomes increasingly less attractive.
