Have you recently given your wheelchair or powerchair a bit of love and upgraded its appearance or performance? Day-to-day mobility products should be empowering, cool and comfortable. We scoured the web and found seven wheelchair accessories and upgrades that can improve your adventures.
Custom Design Cushion Covers
Let’s start with a simple and affordable upgrade: custom cushion covers. Your wheelchair can say a lot about you—so let it. Stylize your ride and express your interests and passions. Are you a football fan? Grab your team’s logo and plaster it on the cushion. Maybe you or your kids are Disney enthusiasts; there are cushion patterns available showcasing some of your favorite characters. Or check out Etsy and have your cushion design customized exactly to your liking.
Wheelchair Suspension Casters
A cushy ride doesn’t end with your tush. Wheelchair suspension is equally important for a comfortable and smooth ride. If you replace your wheelchair’s front casters and forks with a suspension system, then you can improve the chair’s steering and make jarring bumps a distant memory. The industry leading manufacturers for wheelchair suspension casters are Frog Legs and Out-Front.
Light-Up Casters
Sometimes all you want is to make a dazzling entrance when you roll into a room. Light up wheels and casters are just what you’re been looking for. Light up wheels offer you a rainbow at your fingertips. They also add personality, light and fun into every turn of the wheel. Plus, they offer some additional safety by making your chair easier to see at night.
Wheelchair Light Kit
Why stop at adding light-up wheels? You can trick out your entire wheelchair or power chair with useful light sources.
Power Chairs
There are two big light kit upgrades for power chairs, headlamps, or tail lights.
- A headlamp can be installed in a few different places on your power chair and offers improved visibility while steering through dark sidewalks, parking lots and intersections. They’re excellent upgrades to keep you safe from obstacles hidden by the dark.
- A taillight attaches to the back of your power chair and emits a red light when the chair is operating, much like the brake lights on a car.
Manual Wheelchairs
In some ways, manual wheelchair lighting is more flexible than a power chair light kit. The manual wheelchair version of a headlight and taillight are roughly equal to rubber mounted bike lights. Although these aren’t high-tech like a light powered by a power chair, they are easy to remove and adjust to your needs.
Wheelchair Socks and Slippers
Wheelchair wheels get filthy easily. You accidentally roll through a spill in the grocery store; you splash through muddy puddles on a rainy afternoon; your dog leaves you a morning “present” on the driveway that you don’t notice. If you don’t want to track all of that grime back into house, then consider slipping wheelchair socks on your front wheels and slippers on the rear wheels. The socks and slippers are similar to heavy-duty medical booties that fit over your wheels and keep your floors clean from outside contaminates. RehaDesign makes some of the industry’s best.
Wheelchair Pals
Wheelchairs can be intimidating for kids. A wheelchair immediately brands a child as different from their peers, and we all know other kids aren’t always the nicest or most thoughtful toward peers who are visibly different. Wheelchair pals can help alleviate some of that tension and discomfort by adding a fun and adorable stuffed animal to the wheelchair arm. The “pals” are fluffy armrest covers designed like animals. They make the chair more comfortable, and the charming animals are a great conversation starter for younger kids.
Wheelchair Wagon
Long shopping days are hard when you’re in a wheelchair, especially during hectic shopping seasons like the holidays. You only have so much lap space and handbaskets just get in the way. A wheelchair-drawn wagon lets you pull whatever you might buy or need for the day in an easy and convenient way. Most wagons attach via Velcro or a rubber mount to the crossbar on the backrest of your wheelchair or power chair. Some wagons are designed to equally transfer weight between the chair and the wagon so you don’t have to exert much more effort to pull your things. Plus, many of these wagons are collapsible.
Have you tried any of these accessories or upgrades before? How’d they work out? Are there any upgrades that you now want to try? Let us know on Facebook.
