[Blind-Rollers] Manual Wheelchairs and Cane Use

[Ellana Crew]

Good afternoon everyone,

It seems as though this list has been dormant for a while so I’m not too sure if I’ll get any responses, but I wanted to reach out here just in case there were still a few folks keeping an eye on it here and there.

I have just started using a wheelchair around a year ago due to severe dysautonomia, and I am looking for tips on using a manual wheelchair with a white cane at the same time. While I do have some residual vision, I do need my white cane full-time outside of the house, so relying on residual vision  in familiar places is not an option for me most of the time. I have been using a manual wheelchair throughout this time, initially a too big hospital wheelchair but currently have a custom built lightweight chair on the way as we speak. I would much prefer to keep using a manual wheelchair rather than a power chair for a variety of reasons if at all possible, so at the moment I’m not looking for suggestions on switching to a power chair.

Because I still have at least partial use of my legs, I have mostly been scraping by in my current wheelchair by foot propelling. This has certainly made it easy from a white cane standpoint since I can use my left hand to aid myself in pushing and my right hand is always free to use my cane relatively as I did when walking and using other mobility aids, but it is much more tiring than using my arms. I have just gotten approval for a smart drive power assist attachment, which will certainly make a big difference, but my biggest struggle has been learning how to steer without my feet involved so much.

For those of you who do not foot propel, as I know I am probably in the minority for doing so, what techniques have you found to use your white cane and a manual wheelchair at the same time? I have read articles here and there of folks holding their push rim and their cane handle in the same hand by splitting up their fingers between the two, But I have not yet figured out how to make this work myself and have not seen anyone go into very much detail on how it works. I’ve also met some folks online who sweep the cane in between pushes, but have also not yet gotten a feel for how this  Works in my own hands or any very detailed explanations.

Does anyone happen to have more detailed tips on how to make these strategies work, or alternative strategies I haven’t found yet? Any amount of information you could provide would be very helpful. I am making do with my current set up and I suspect I may never fully get away from using my feet to help me  steer and turn at the very least, but I would like to become less dependent on that method if possible and get better at relying on my arms, which have a much easier time of it than my legs do.  Tips for turning in particular would be especially useful, since the smart drive will at least help me significantly with forward momentum in a straight line.

Thanks,
Ellana