Hi everyone!

My name is David and I'm working on designing a product for an engineering design course at Dartmouth College that will help manual wheelchair users scale small sets of steps. I do not use a wheelchair myself, so I rely a lot on the experiences and preferences of others. I would really appreciate it if those of you who are independent and use a manual wheelchair fill out this quick survey here:

Wheelchair Survey - SurveyMonkey

Thanks a lot and if you have any questions, comments or would like to help by giving further input, feel free to reply here or send me a message.

David
Thayer School of Engineering
Dartmouth College

Hi David,

Not being critical but I think your first question alone shows how little you understand about being in a wheelchair. Most users would find even one step too difficult to negotiate, let alone the 2 - 5 in your question. Just think of the amount of force needed to rotate a 24" diam wheel up and over say, a 6" step, then add the users weight, and work out the amount of grip required on the 20" diam pushrims (Quads rarely have full hand use). Are you getting the picture yet?

There are many folk here who would be willing to give advice on your project, but it seems to me you need to think about precisely what it is you want to design, and then ask the questions.

Cripes I can't even get up and down the kerb half the time - climbing multiple steps??

We need to order some more plasters! These knees are going to be taking a lot more impact!!

What an odd survey. I do a number of them in the course of the year,, and usually, I can see some point they want to clarify. On this one, I had a lot of trouble doing that.

Perhaps it would help you more if you were a bit more specific, and asked the questions outright. If we find you seriously want to get a few answers, you will find most of us very helpful.
ed

Thank you all for your replies. I admit I was not very clear in my first post. Please let me clarify our goals. Our aim is to create a device that allows manual wheelchair users to climb small sets of stairs without need for electronics. We also want it to be simple, lightweight, and not require any modifications to a user's current chair. All of these specifications have forced us to significantly narrow down our target user to someone with good upper body use and fitness. Our main local contact who fits this description assured us (and demonstrated) that a single step or curb was not a problem.

Our current design is a significant departure from our initial drawings. Right now we are working on a novel ramp design that will allow for ascending a small range of steps while still being safe, portable and easy to deploy. Besides working out the mechanical details, currently our biggest issue is figuring out the balance of weight vs. cost which will dictate the materials we use. Steel is strong and cheap, but heavy. Carbon fibre is strong and light, but rather expensive.