What to look for with a manual wheelchair

There are many things to look at when choosing your manual wheelchair, we will first look at the components of the manual wheelchair.
The Frame
This is the obvious place to start, does your manual wheelchair need to be able to fold down for transport or storage? The advantage here is that the manual wheelchair will fit easily in the boot of your car, or stow away in a small corner when not required. The disadvantage is that due to the folding mechanism requiring a cross brace this usually makes the manual wheelchair slightly more difficult to manoeuvre by the active user.
If on the other hand transporting and storage of the manual wheelchair are not a priority, you could opt for the rigid frame manual wheelchair, which is not as easy to transport or store, but because it does not need the folding mechanism, it will usually be lighter and easier to manoeuvre.
Currently the main materials used for the frame of a manual wheelchair are steel, which is very strong, relatively cheap but can be fairly heavy, alternatively there is aluminium, which is a lot lighter, not quite as strong and therefore more manoeuvrable, but is quite expensive.

The Seat

the user should fit the seat of the manual wheelchair comfortably, too snug and pressure sores may develop, too wide or too deep and this will encourage poor posture or lack of support from the backrest.
Some seats sag in the middle, particular on folding manual wheelchairs, again this could cause pressure sores or other discomfort in general.

The Backrest

the posture of the user will be badly affected if the backrest of the manual wheelchair is badly adjusted for angle and / or height.
the backrest of the manual wheelchair will probably fold either back or forwards for storage, it may or may not have pushing handles on it, these in turn may or may not be adjustable.

The Tyres
Pneumatic tyes will absorb shocks better but have a higher risk of punctures, then there are puncture proof tyres which are filled with a jelly like substance and at the other end of the scale are solid tyres which provide a rough ride but are very hard wearing.

Alternatives to a manual wheelchair are to use a powered wheelchair or for the more able how about a scooter

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