mobility aid
{{Short description|Device that helps people with mobility impairments}}
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A mobility aid is a device designed to assist individuals with impaired movement. These devices help people walk, maintain balance, or get around more easily.{{Cite web|title=Mobility Aids|url=https://medlineplus.gov/mobilityaids.html|access-date=2021-03-12|website=MedlinePlus}}
Mobility aids include walking supports like canes, crutches, and walkers for those with limited walking ability, as well as wheelchairs and scooters for individuals who cannot walk or need assistance over longer distances. For people who are blind or visually impaired, tools such as white canes and guide dogs offer essential support. There are also aids designed for use within buildings, such as stair lifts and transfer devices that help users move between floors or from one position to another.
The term “mobility aid” generally refers to mechanical or assistive devices and is often used in official contexts, including tax or medical equipment classifications. These devices are typically intended to offer mobility similar to what a person might achieve when walking or standing without help.
Emerging technologies continue to expand the capabilities of mobility aids by incorporating features like sensors and providing users with audio or tactile feedback.
Walking aids
Walking aids are devices that help individuals with mobility impairments remain upright while walking. They include assistive canes, crutches, walkers, and more specialized options like gait trainers, and upright walkers. Each type of aid provides different kinds of support, helping to improve balance, reduce stress on the legs, and make walking easier.
;Improving Stability: Walking aids improve stability by offering additional points of contact with the ground, which helps users maintain a wider and more secure base of support.
;Reducing Lower-Limb Strain: By shifting some of the body’s weight to the arms, these devices reduce the load on the lower limbs. This can ease pressure on joints and muscles, decreasing pain and fatigue.
;Facilitating Movement: With increased balance and reduced strain, walking aids make it easier for users to move safely and confidently, especially over longer distances or uneven surfaces.
=Canes=
A cane or walking stick is the simplest form of walking aid. It is held in one hand and transmits weight to the ground through a single shaft. The amount of support it provides is limited by the strength of the user’s hand and wrist.
=Crutches=
Crutches also transfer weight to the ground via a shaft, but they offer two points of contact with the arm -- at the hand and either below the elbow or under the armpit. This design allows crutches to support significantly more weight than a cane.
=Canes, Crutches, and Forearm Crutch Combinations=
Modern mobility devices include various hybrids of canes, crutches, and forearm crutches. Forearm crutches have a cuff that wraps around the forearm along with a handgrip, offering more support than a cane. These designs help improve balance, provide lateral stability, and reduce the strain placed on the wrist.
=Walkers=
A walker (also known as a Zimmer frame) is one of the most stable walking aids. It consists of a freestanding metal frame with three or more points of contact with the ground. The user moves it ahead and then holds it for support while walking. Walkers may have rubber tips (ferrules), wheels, or both. Walkers with wheels are often called rollators and may include features like built-in seats and storage pouches for added
=Walker Cane Hybrid=
Image:Walker Cane Hybrid in 4 Configurations.jpg
The walker cane hybrid, introduced in 2012, bridges the gap between a cane and a walker. It has two legs for added side-to-side stability and can be used with one or both hands. It functions in various positions -- in front or to the side of the user -- and may also assist with stair climbing. Although it offers more support than a cane, it is not a replacement for a full walker, which has four points of contact and provides greater overall stability.
=Gait Trainers=
Gait trainers are advanced mobility aids that offer more support than standard walkers. They are often used for weight-bearing assistance and balance training. These devices typically include frames with accessories that provide partial body weight support and help maintain posture, enabling the user to practice walking safely.
Seated walking scooter
File:Walking Aid Scooter and mobility aid.jpg
The Walk Aid Scooter allows a user with normal balance and foot, knee or hip conditions to unload the lower extremities. The two-wheeled scooter has a bicycle-type seat and handlebars, and is manually propelled with one or both feet like a balance bicycle. This walking aid scooter provides more support than a cane and is lighter, less bulky and easier to propel than a wheelchair.
Wheelchairs and scooters
Wheelchairs and mobility scooters substitute for walking by providing a wheeled device on which the user sits. Wheelchairs may be either manually propelled (by the user or by an aide) or electrically powered (commonly known as a "powerchair"). There are different types of wheelchair power add-ons that turn any manual wheelchair into a power assisted.
Mobility scooters are electrically powered, as are motorized wheelchairs. Wheelchairs and Scooters are normally recommended for any individual due to significant mobility/balance impairment. A Registered Occupational Therapist or Physiotherapist (few cases) are able to provide object and clinical testing to ensure proper and safe device recommendations.
Stairlifts and similar devices
A stairlift is a mechanical device for lifting people and wheelchairs up and down stairs. Sometimes special purpose lifts are provided elsewhere to facilitate access for those with disabilities, for example at entrances to raised bus stops in Curitiba, Brazil. A wheelchair lift is specifically designed to carry the user and the wheelchair. This can either be through floor or utilizing the staircase.
Others
Mobility aids may also include adaptive technology such as sling lifts or other patient transfer devices that help transfer users between beds and chairs or lift chairs {{cite web |last1=Archers |first1=Sleepcentre |title=Riser Recliner Chair |url=https://www.archerssleepcentre.co.uk/riser-recliner-chairs |website=archerssleepcentre.co.uk |publisher=Archers Sleepcentre |access-date= 11 September 2024}} (and other sit-to-stand devices), transfer or convertible chairs. Knee scooters help some users. As people start to live longer mobility is about for many reclaiming aspects of independence which before were denied to them.
See also
References
{{Reflist|refs=
|title=Reduced-rate VAT on mobility aids for older people
|url=http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/sectors/consumers/mobility-aids.htm
|location=London |publisher=HM Revenue and Customs |access-date=25 September 2010
}}
|last1=Acerbi |first1=A |last2=Graffigna |first2=J P |last3=Polimeni |first3=G |last4=Fernández |first4=H H |year=2007
|title=Mobility aid for blind figure skaters
|doi=10.1088/1742-6596/90/1/012098 |journal=Journal of Physics: Conference Series
|volume=90
|pages=012098 |issue=1
|bibcode=2007JPhCS..90a2098A |doi-access=free }}
|last1=Bostelman |first1=R |last2=Russo |first2=P |last3=Albus |first3=J |last4=Hong |first4=T |last5=Madhavan |first5=R |year=2006
|title=Applications of a 3D Range Camera Towards Healthcare Mobility Aids
|url=https://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id%3D823581
|work=International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control
|location=Gaithersburg, MD |publisher=National Institute of Science and Technology |access-date=25 September 2010
}}
|title=Description of Forearm Crutch
|url=http://www.crutch.com/Crutches.htm
|location=Ceredigion, UK |publisher=SafetyNet Systems |access-date=25 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324130136/http://www.crutch.com/Crutches.htm|archive-date=March 24, 2016
}}
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- Michael W. Whittle, R (2008). "Pathological and Other Abnormal gaits", Gait Analysis, An Introduction, Butterworth Heinemann & Elsevier, (122-130).
External links
{{Commons category|Mobility devices}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20111229205209/http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/editorial_1370.shtm Assistive Devices and Mobility Aids: Travelers with Disabilities and Medical Conditions] Regulations for travelers from the US Transportation Security Administration
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