Specialized Equipments for the Disabled

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are as many as 6.5 billion persons with disability today. Sad to say, of this 6.5 billion worldwide population, UNICEF has estimated that around one quarter or 150 million are children.

With half of the world's population under 15 years old, the number of adolescents and youth with disability can be expected to rise over the next decades not included the elderly sick people disabled by chronic illnesses due to aging, injuries, and other complications because of old age. 

In the United States alone, for example, Americans with disabilities constitute the third-largest minority (after persons of Hispanic origin and African Americans); all three of those minority groups number in the 30-some millions in America. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as of 2004, there were some 32 million adults (aged 18 or over) in the United States, plus another 5 million children and youth (under age 18).

Adolescents and youth are at increased risk for acquiring a disability due to work-related injuries and risk taking behavior (including motor vehicle accidents, experimentation with drugs and unprotected sex). Furthermore, many chronic disabling illnesses and mental health conditions first appear only during the second decade of lives.

This is an early photo of a wheelchair fitted with Mecanum wheels, taken at an exhibition in the early 1980's.

The history of wheelchair started dating way back 530 BC when the Greeks placed wheels on a bed, creating the first known wheeled furniture. By 525 ad, the Chinese had placed wheels on chairs. However the first recognisable wheelchair was invented for King Phillip II of Spain. A drawing of the King dated 1595 shows him in a chair with wheels, armrests and footrests. However, it was not self propelled, and perhaps had a closer resemblance to a highchair than a wheelchair of today.

The modern wheelchair began to take shape in the late 19th century to early 20th century with the advent of push rims for self-propulsion in 1881, and wire spoked wheels replacing wooden ones in 1900.

The 20th century saw a rapid development in wheelchairs, from the first motorised wheels in 1918, to the first folding wheelchair, built in 1933 by Herbert B. Everest, paralysed in 1919 in a mining accident, and his friend Harry C. Jennings Sr., a mechanical engineer. By the mid 1970s Errol Markheim at Sopur in Germany, Jeff Minnebraker at Quadra in California, and Rainier Kuschall in Europe, had all created lightweight, aluminum, highly-adjustable chairs.

The most recent two decades have seen the progress in the modern wheelchair accelerate. They are lighter and perform better than ever before. There are now many possibilities available to improve the ride, from suspension systems which help to remove vibrations and jolts, to ultra-light weight frames which enable better performance, to special designs for every individualised need and taste.

Photo & info courtesy of Wikipedia

I've been a wheel-user myself for such a couple of years not until I had gone through a series of operation. I know that feeling of uneasiness sitting down on that stiff chair..So, I decided to gather some wheel-chair specifications that can be very useful to your loved-ones as well..

The best way to cope up with your disability is to divert your valuable time in reading so that way you are learning and inspired by those people who are going through the same with your situation...Read In Order To Live -Gaustave Flaubert

A lot of my friends still wondering what could have been the enemy that stricken me. Some of the strangers that I came across the street often stop and take a minute to look at me as if there's something wrong with me. From the moment that I become a toddler I already knew that I am different from everyone else. In our family, we rarely discuss it because no one knew the real cause behind it. Not until I entered the age of 10, there I was diagnosed to have a Idiopathic Osteolysis Carpotarsal, a rare bone disease. I was told by my doctor that I could never walk again and it's much better to get my knees to be fixed in a wheelchair. I totally don't remember what it is like my initial reaction.

But, of course, my Mom who is my only companion at that time was so devastated hearing the bad news. I don't know how many of (us) kids nor adults in the world with the same case as I am. I can relate to the feeling as if you're life has been into an abyss of confusion how to pick up the pieces together and learned to move into one places to another literally in a possible way that you can do. Until my family decided me to undergo a series of operation to lessen the deformity and somehow to stop any complications that occur in my later age.

Bringing up again all the same issues, I never thought it in a negative way that would only caused me pain. With the hope in my heart that everything that we have right now is temporary gives me a sort of happiness thinking that Jehovah God has a lot of things in store for me in the future.

So, to those people who are in the same situation, a lot of times you might feel how life's unfair just don't lose hope soon you will discover something in your talent uniquely your own. Strive for the best and God will do the rest.

Always remember to P-U-S-H!

Stands for:

P - pray

U - until

S - something

H - happens!!

2 Corinthians 4:7: However, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the power beyond what is normal may be God's and not that out of ourselves.

A poem about war, disablism- the inequality experience by disabled people in this modern society.

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,

And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,

Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park

Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,

Voices of play and pleasure after day,

Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay

When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees

And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,

- In the old times, before he threw away his knees.

Now he will never feel again how slim

Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,

All of them touch him like some queer disease.

There was an artist silly for his face,

For it was younger than his youth, last year.

Now he is old; his back will never brace;

He's lost his colour very far from here,

Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,

And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,

And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

One time he liked a bloodsmear down his leg,

After the matches carried shoulder-high.

It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,

He thought he'd better join. He wonders why . . .

Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts.

That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,

Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,

He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;

Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.

Germans he scarcely thought of; and no fears

Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts

For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;

And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;

Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.

And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.

Only a solemn man who brought him fruits

Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,

And do what things the rules consider wise,

And take whatever pity they may dole.

To-night he noticed how the women's eyes

Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.

How cold and late it is! Why don't they come

And put him into bed? Why don't they come?

Live...Learn and most of all....LAUGH and SMILE!

I hope I'd help you with some info in my own little ways. Thank you for visiting my lens...