The Need for a Wheelchair Tray
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2.7 million Americans over the age of 15 use a wheelchair.1 Even after injury, people using wheelchairs maintain active lifestyles. This includes work, school and sports. Wheelchair users must adapt to or adapt the world around them to try and live as close to a normal life as possible. However, some activities within a wheelchair remain a challenge, specifically the availability of a personal workspace.
Because many work surfaces are built for non-wheelchair users, many wheelchair users utilize a wheelchair tray for eating meals, as a workstation, and for other daily activities. Not having the use of a personal work surface forces some wheelchair users to place heavy objects on their lap which increases pressure on their boney prominences. It also forces wheelchair users to reach towards a desk that may not be at a suitable height or distance from the user. Many individuals in a wheelchair cannot pull up to a desk or a table due to variations in height, distances, and shapes of different work surfaces or because of the lack of room for the chair underneath the desk. These shortcomings within a work environment can lead to serious health problems such as back pain.2
Currently available wheelchair trays are bulky, have limited adjustability, and do not allow the user to store them while they are not in use. These heavy trays cannot be removed by the wheelchair user and because they require assistance they diminish the amount of independence that a personal workspace is meant to provide. An easily storable, portable and lightweight work surface or tray would be ideal for an independent active lifestyle.
The purpose of this research project is to design and construct a wheel chair tray that will allow wheel chair users to have a suitable surface associated with routine daily activities such as working, eating and using a laptop. The target population for this tray is adult wheelchair users who need a wheel chair tray for a work or school environment. These users would be of at least the capability level of a person with a C6 spinal cord injury (SCI).
Individuals with C6 spinal cord injury have function of wrist extension, which permits passive thumb adduction on the index finger, but often lack the use of strong triceps. C6 SCI is the highest level at which patients can have a complete injury and still function independently. Wheelchair users with C6 injuries can still conduct many normal daily activities such as using a phone, turning pages, and writing and typing (with assistive devices). For these reasons individuals with injuries at this level can benefit greatly from assistive devices such as a personal work surface.3
1 Steinmetz, E., and U.S. Census Bureau.: Americans with disabilities : 2002. Edited, 32 p., Washington, DC, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, 2006.
2 Troy, BS. “An analysis of work postures of manual wheelchair users in the office environment.” Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, v. 34 issue 2, 1997, p. 151
3 McKinley, W., Silver, T.M. “Functional Outcomes per Level of Spinal Cord Injury.” Emedicine December 12, 2006.
