Manual Wheelchair: Physical Barrier in Community Participation for Paraplegic in tough Hilly Terrains.

Community participation is a complicated and complex issue with apparent impediments which effect the person’s ability to involve in gathering in community. Slopes or slants are not only environmental or architectural barriers but they also reveal a biodiversity of public and private spaces or buildings hindering their social integration and participation. A manual wheelchair is the accelerator to increase independence in social and cultural integration by minimising the barriers. Manual wheelchair not only provides mobility to physical disabled but also improves the general health and quality of life. Many disabled persons live in poor accessible situations or surroundings due to geographical conditions in hilly areas. These hilly terrains are often occupied by snow and curvy roads, posing a great difficulty to persons having limited mobility. Such environmental impediments place additional requirements on the strength and durability of wheelchairs. Keeping in mind all difficulties to these mobility chair, generally will be the provision of an motorized wheelchair. This case study basically emphasised on manual wheelchairs as barrier on hilly sloppy roads rather than on plain levelled wheeled mobility.

Author(s): Pardeep Pahwa, Madhu Bala Thakur and Manjeet Saini

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