Uni Students in the Netherlands' 1 Minute Questionnaire

Hello!

I'm part of a mobility-abled team of students in the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. We are developing a concept to try and help those new to using a wheelchair after injury. While doing background research, we heard time and again that balance is a big concern when using a wheelchair, especially so when first starting to use one. I remember watching Wheels2Walking's video on cooking and seeing how every single step was related to wheelchair positioning and handling of items in a balanced way. Beginners, however, might not know exactly where their limits lie in terms of how far they incline forward or to the sides. Our device would alert them when they are reaching these thresholds, to ensure that they dont push a bit too far and fall (which can be super dangerous when doing things like cooking).

While we might be mobility-abled, I personally have various chronic conditions (either mental or organ-related), and I understand how infuriating it is when people try to solve issues for me but just don't understand, which is why we're coming to you for feedback on our design. Any and all comments are welcome and valuable, even harsh criticism. You can give us your thoughts in this form.

Furthermore, we poured through pages and pages of academic research into SCI balance but the articles were few, tackled different issues, or not of enough reliability to be used. Therefore, if you could provide us with some ballpark estimate regarding how much you could lean when first using a wheelchair we would be incredibly grateful.