Getting out of the wheelchair onto the ground is the easy part… Lifting your body back into the wheelchair requires more muscle power, therefore is somewhat harder. Regardless of how tough it may seem, I promise it will only get better with time and practice. Basically, to successfully transfer into the wheelchair from the ground, you’ll need to do exactly what was done to get on the floor, but do it in reverse. It’s important to remember that the technique is the same.
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Knowing you’re able to transfer in and out of your manual wheelchair is extremely important. You may think, “I’m never going to put myself in a situation where I might fall, so why practice?” It isn’t because I think you’re necessarily going to fall. Yes, its possible you’re front wheels may hit a crack in the sidewalk and you do a face-plant onto the floor… Is it likely? Probably not… The truth is, most of the time I’m on the floor next to the wheelchair isn’t because I busted my ass, it’s because I chose to hop out (yes, I said “hop”). Maybe I’m at the park having lunch with my wife, and I hop into the grass to relax for a while. Or maybe my tire goes flat and I need to sit on the ground next to the wheelchair to fix it.
Psychologically, it’s important you’re able to independently get into your wheelchair from the floor.
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Some people may think that a person disabled in a wheelchair is just as disabled as all others in wheelchairs, no more no less. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, they’re both in wheelchairs, there’s no getting around that fact. But, the levels of functional independence can be far different. For someone confined to a wheelchair, disability and independence work as opposites. The less functional independence, the more disabled they are. The more independent the person, the less disabled they are, regardless of the fact that they are both in wheelchairs.
