The Market For Manual Wheelchairs And Their Accessories

Whenever I see a person on a wheelchair, I always think of how the person in that wheelchair is severely limited in their lifestyle by their disability. I can’t help but think that surely there must be a way for them to have a better lifestyle even though they are disabled.

I searched online and found that although these disabled people have very limited mobility as compared to people with fully functional legs, those of them with very strong upper bodies especially the arms have invented creative ways to make their disability less of a hindrance.

One of the best examples of how disabled people in wheelchairs have been able to conquer their disability is by being able to climb up and down a stair. I personally have not seen a wheelchair bound person climb the stairs, but I saw several YouTube videos about it.

One of the best examples is this YouTube video where a wheelchair bound person climbed up and down a flight of stairs with no problems at all:

YouTube Video: DEMO 1 - Paraplegic Climbs Stairs in Wheelchair

As can be seen, a wheelchair bound person with a strong upper body strength can do a lot with a simple handrail in a stairs. This video is one of the many I have found online in YouTube which shows how a wheelchair bound person can climb a flight of stairs.

This is good news for all wheelchair bound persons but is unfortunate for any company that is planning or already selling wheelchairs that can climb stairs. I saw a few of these battery powered wheelchairs that can climb the stairs.

While they are cutting edge and innovative, I dare to say that they won’t be selling well to wheelchair bound people with strong upper body strength. They still have a potential good market though in wheelchair bound people who do not posses a strong upper body strength.

According to a wheelchair industry report by Grand View Research, the global market size is valued at USD 2.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at an annual CAGR of 8.0% from 2021 to 2028.

Although this industry statistic is unfortunate for people who are or will be confined to wheelchairs, this presents a good news to businesses who make wheelchairs and their associated accessories.

There is almost a certainty that everyone will use if not own a wheelchair at a certain point in their lives. Although it is unfortunate that there are people who have to use wheelchairs all their life, wheelchair manufacturers can still benefit from the people who have to use them temporarily.

If you would look at the statistical graph shown in the Grand View Research, it would show that manual wheelchairs would continue to outsell electric wheelchairs by a long margin. There are a couple reasons to this.

If ever you are already a small manual wheelchair manufacturer or planning to be one, this should be a very interesting and welcome news to you. This means that yo do not have to fear that someday, electric wheelchairs would make your business obsolete.

Cost:

This is probably the greatest reason why manual wheelchairs are still more popular than electric wheelchairs. According to articles online about the reason why manual wheelchairs are still more popular than electric wheelchairs, this is the reason I normally found.

This probably has a lot to do with the financial condition of the families of the people in wheelchairs more than anything else. For some reason or another, the families of wheelchair bound people seems to be unable to afford the price of electric wheelchairs.

This is understandable considering that the families of wheelchair bound people usually have other costs besides the purchase of a wheelchair. Wheelchair bound people are usually dependent on their family and have no way of supporting themselves.

This is especially true for wheelchair bound people living in developing countries. A wheelchair may be affordable for a person living in a developed country, but may be entirely unaffordable for a person living in a developing country.

Wheelchairs can be so unaffordable to many people that they have resorted to making their own version of a wheelchair. As mentioned before, a manual wheelchair is a relatively simple device that almost anyone can create by themselves.

But electric wheelchairs can be a hard if not impossible thing to create by yourself. Electric and electronic components are notoriously hard to make on your own. This is the reason why few people are able to create their own electric wheelchair.

Bulky:

Electric wheelchairs can be very bulky, very heavy and impractical for outside the house use. Even the lightweight versions of electric wheelchairs can still be bulky and heavy. This is the reason why very few wheelchair bound people use them for traveling outside their houses.

Even inside the house they can be so bulky that the wheelchair bound person ends up crashing into chairs, tables, cabinets and other things in the house. Even an extra inch added to the size of the electric wheelchair over a manual wheelchair is enough for it to be difficult to navigate because of its size.

Besides being bulky, electric wheelchairs can be heavy. They can be so heavy that they cease to become portable. Imagine trying to lug an electric wheelchair in the booth of your car. If you are a weak person, this task may be very difficult or even impossible.

This is because the mechanical and battery components of electric wheelchairs adds a lot to their weight. For a wheelchair bound person who have lost the strength of the muscles of their feet, navigating a heavy electric wheelchair can be a very difficult task.

Besides the bulkiness and heaviness of electric wheelchairs, they can also be impractical for outside the house use because they are rigid and non-portable. I remember seeing a couple of electric mobility scooters in Australia where they can be seen being used often by people with walking problems.

Judging by their big sizes and non-portable design, I can’t imagine one ever fitting into a car or even in an SUV. They are almost the same size as electric wheelchairs that can be used for outdoor use.

Reliability:

Another point of contention why electric wheelchairs are chosen second and manual wheelchairs first is because no wheelchair bound person wants to be in a position where their electric wheelchair breaks down at an inappropriate time.

Imagine you are a wheelchair bound person who is left alone the house. If your electric wheelchair suddenly breaks down as is normal for most electric and electronic devices, you would be left all alone trapped in your own wheelchair.

Compare this to using an ordinary manual wheelchair instead. With a manual wheelchair, you do not get the ease of having the electric power of your electric wheelchair move you. What you have instead is the power of your own two hands.

As long as you still have the full use of your two hands, you would be able to move your wheelchair any way you please. You do not have to worry about parts breaking down on your electric wheelchair.

The Battery is the usual problem according to a study found in the United Kingdom. Even though battery technology have advanced significantly through the years, the batteries of today are likely to wear down easily in such heavy uses as being used in electric wheelchairs.

Water Seepage is another problem for electric wheelchairs. A wheelchair bound person would have no problems when rains pour and they are in their manual wheelchair. At worst, the manual wheelchair would only become very wet.

Compare this to an electric wheelchair getting wet. Since electricity and water don’t mix well and can be dangerous, there is a high likelihood that not only will the electric wheelchair break down, but the person riding it could be harmed like getting electrocuted.

It is also highly recommended that electric wheelchairs Need To Be Checked Yearly by a certified wheelchair technician. Just like automobiles, electric wheelchairs have mechanical and electric components that require regular checkups.

Manual Assistance Is Still The Norm:

This is the most overlooked situation in wheelchair use. There are many wheelchair bound people who have not only lost the power to move their legs, but they have also lost a lot of physical and mental freedom.

A very good example would be very old people who can no longer walk but are also so weak that they need another person to look after them. These people can be so old that the use of an electric wheelchair is not advisable for them.

At this stage of their physical handicap, what they really need are all around helpers who would be able to act as not only their legs, but their arms and hands as well. These wheelchair bound old people may be so weak that the simple act of operating an electric wheelchair is impossible for them.

I remember when I was hospitalized and was so sick that I needed to be put in a wheelchair just to be transported around. Besides needing a wheelchair, I also needed someone to assist me as I go in and out of my hospital bed.

As can be seen, the combination of a helper and a wheelchair is what I needed and not just an electric wheelchair. All around the world, you can see this situation where the wheelchair bound person will be so dependent for assistance from another human being.

In this situation, the combination of a simple manual wheelchair and a human person is all that is needed instead of a fancy and expensive electric wheelchair. This is the reason I believe why there are so few people availing of these fancy and expensive wheelchairs in developing countries.

In developing countries, finding a person who will assist a person in a wheelchair is still more affordable than buying an electric wheelchair who can only assist the wheelchair bound person to move around and not really assist them with all their mobility needs.

Almost everyone has seen a basic wheelchair. It is simply a chair with wheels. Almost anyone can make one. If you Google the search keyword ”DIY wheelchair” or “do-it-yourself wheelchair,” you would come across a lot of images and articles showing you one or how to do one.

For manual the wheelchair market, the human labor needed to make one is not a big factor. The important factor is the composition of the materials needed to make the manual wheelchair.

As has been said, anyone can make their own manual wheelchair with even the very basic of tools. The composition of the materials of the manual wheelchairs is what makes it special. I for example had seen a manual wheelchair made out of wood.

While this wooden manual wheelchair is cheap and would work, it cannot beat the manual wheelchair made out of light metal materials like aluminum which are not only light but are very durable.

So basically, anyone can setup their own wheelchair manufacturing business right in their own homes as long as they have access to the proper materials and a few basic tools to begin with. Even the tires of a bicycle can be used in a wheelchair. This is how basic wheelchair manufacturing can be.

Despite the continued advancement in technology of electric and electronic wheelchairs, the humble manual wheelchair would continue to be more popular with many wheelchair bound people.

Besides the cost factor, the advantage of manual wheelchairs is that are more manageable than electric wheelchairs. People can even climb up and down stairs using one. Also, if a wheelchair bound person really needs assistance, they can simply find another human to assist them.

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