17,000 Bouts of Mobility

An estimated 1.5 million people use manual wheelchairs in the United States [1]. Despite the frequent use of manual wheelchairs, there exists only a small, but growing literature base describing daily wheelchair usage, often in terms of daily travel distance and time spent wheeling [2-4]. While daily usage is certainly important for design and prescription of wheelchairs, it is also necessary to understand the complexity of mobility. The complex details of mobility can influence propulsion training and motivate relevant research, in addition to affecting wheelchair design and prescription.