Use of active wheelchairs in everyday life: experiences among experienced users of active ultra lightweight rigid frame wheelchairs

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the everyday life experience of being an experienced active wheelchair user in Sweden. Method: A qualitative approach, based on interviews, was chosen. Eleven active wheelchair users were interviewed; the results analysed by means of a thematic content analysis. Results: Two main categories, each with two sub-categories emerged: (1) Challenges and changes (life-course perspective); and (2) the ambassador of differentness (activities and situations). The first sub-categories: (1a) the changing self (attitudes and values); and (1b) getting older (the meaning of experiences for future expectations). The second sub-categories: (2a) the responsible representative (having to represent a general image of disability); and (2b) other's attitudes (interactants' expressions of attitudes). Conclusions: An active wheelchair user can be seen as an open person, a representative of other wheelchair users. Interactants can actively engage in solving non-existing problems, or over-estimate actual problems, i.e. over-attentiveness. The personal experience can change over time, e.g. to care less about over-attentiveness, or to engage less in situations where over-attentiveness is likely to occur, i.e. impression management. Also, regular interactants can learn to see the wheelchair as something normal, sometimes even forgetting it. Implications for Rehabilitation To use an active wheelchair affects interaction in everyday life, rendering the user an open person, possible to address at will as a representative of other users as well. The experienced user of an active wheelchair is the expert concerning her/his present capacity in activities in everyday life; possible obstacles remain inert until defined otherwise by the user.