The Plastic Wheelchair Wheel is a Cheap Flip Flop – Erik Kondo

Plastic Wheelchair Wheels are the Flip Flips of Assistive Technology.

The commonly used 24"x1” (injection molded) polyurethane wheelchair wheel has a solid tire with no tread. It is only suitable to be used indoors on flat dry and hard floors. On any other type of terrain, it will slip, slide or sink into the ground. Despite its minimal functional use case, it is used throughout the world on wheelchairs on all types of terrain, particularly in LMICs. As a result, a large percentage of wheelchairs users have greatly diminished mobility.

Imagine if the only type footwear available to you were plastic flipflops. And you had to wear them everywhere. Regardless of where you lived and what you were doing.

The primary reason for the widespread use of this relatively heavy plastic wheelchair wheel is because it is very cheap to manufacture and very cheap to maintain. Just like flip flops. Wholesale cost of the wheel is around $7-8 per wheel. The plastic wheelchair wheel doesn’t go flat. It never needs to be pumped up. Since it had no tread, it will last for a relatively long time.

Wheelchair manufacturers install plastic wheelchair wheels because they lower the production cost of their wheelchairs. It makes them easier to store and ship in huge quantities. Institutions and governments like the plastic wheelchair wheels because it reduces the cost of the wheelchairs they purchase and maintain in large quantities.

For example, imagine the overall cost savings in the production and purchase of footwear if everyone in the world only wore cheap flip flops. But if everyone could only wear flip flops, human mobility and productivity would be greatly reduced. This is so obvious, it doesn’t need a further explanation. This situation would never happen. Proper footwear and human performance are commonly understood to be intertwined.

Generally speaking, society has deemed it acceptable that most wheelchair users are forced to use substandard plastic wheelchair wheels because there is minimal consideration given to their wheelchair’s mobility performance. The primary goal is to reduce costs, not to increase the wheelchair users’ mobility, quality of life, and productivity.

In order to further reduce costs by a few dollars, the plastic wheelchair wheel is secured to the wheelchair’s frame with a common bolt and nut. The wheel cannot be removed without tools. Thereby making the already heavy and awkward (hospital style) wheelchair more difficult to transport due to its overall bulk and weight. The plastic wheelchair wheel is like a heavy pair of flip flops that you need tools to take off your feet.

If the plastic wheelchair wheel is really so bad, why does it keep getting used?

The widespread use of the plastic wheelchair wheel and the hospital style wheelchair it is bolted to is the result of ingrained societal neglect of the basic mobility needs of wheelchair users. There is no other explanation. This neglect manifests itself in the accepted design philosophy of making mass produced (hospital style) wheelchairs as cheap as possible with little regard for their functional performance.

This situation will only change when society realizes that using the cheapest possible assistive technology is actually MORE expensive in the long run due to the lost of human potential. Recognizing that plastic wheelchair wheels are the flip flops of assistive technology is just the start.