EVALUATION OF METHODS FOR DETERMINING REARWARD STATIC STABILITY OF MANUAL WHEELCHAIRS

Wheelchair standards have been under development for several years. A set of tests has been approved by the American National Standards Inst itute (ANSI) and by the International Standards Organization (ISO) but continue to be refined. Static stability is one of the indicators use d to evaluate manual wheelchairs and is measured by placing a loaded w heelchair on a platform that is tilted until the wheelchair's front wh eels lift off of the platform. Currently, if the wheelchair parking br akes slip, a block is placed behind the rear wheels and the tip angle is measured. The results for eight different wheelchairs with three lo ad cases showed that the rearward tip angle for the block is significa ntly different (p<0.05) from that with the brakes alone.