1 Arm Pushing

One-Handed Wheelchair Pushing Development  — Overview

Manual wheelchairs date back to the 1670s but rely on pushing the wheels with both hands. A number of illnesses, conditions and even social circumstances mean that pushing with both hands isn't always possible. This includes people who have had a stroke or suffered a head injury, and children with "hemiplegic" cerebral palsy.

Hemiplegia is the paralysis of half of the body resulting from damage to one of the hemispheres of the brain, usually before, during or soon after birth. Childhood hemiplegia is a relatively common condition, affecting up to one child in a thousand.

The causes of congenital hemiplegia are mostly unknown, but it is thought that acquired hemiplegia results from damage to the brain during childhood. The most common cause is a stroke (when a bleed or blood clot damages part of the brain), but it can also result from an accident or infection.

There is a need for a rugged, low-cost, one-hand-drive wheelchair.


The till now commercially available one-arm-drive (hemiplegic) wheelchairs are prone to part failure, are very expensive and have design problems which limit their usefulness.

In one commercial hemiplegic chair, the rider delivers power to both rear wheels with one hand. The two hand-rims, one next to and slightly smaller than the other, are mounted on one side of the chair. One rim is fixed to the wheel on that side and the other is connected by a central axle (transverse rod) to the opposite wheel. To move straight ahead, the rider grips both hand-rims at once: To make a turn, he pushes just one hand-rim. The main weakness of the commercial chair is that the axle that transfers power from one side to the other is too thin and prone to failure.

The standard NHS hemiplegic wheelchair has two hand rims positioned beside the driving wheel on the active side of the body. To go in a straight line you grip both hand rims simultaneously and rotate them at the same speed. However, the rims are relatively widely spaced, which makes them difficult to grip with one hand, especially for people with small hands and little strength. Turning is even more difficult because you use the right hand rim to turn the left wheel and vice versa. This is very counter-intuitive.

Cambridge University undergraduate Lucy Porter, and supervisor Samuel Lesley, have designed a new manual hemiplegic wheelchair. The prototype has two hand-rims on the same side of the chair, but one rim is used for going forwards or backwards, and the other is used for pirouetting on the spot. This is more ergonomic and intuitive. Travelling in a straight line is automatic; steering is done with a steerable footrest. Tight turns are possible, and there is no difference in the rim force required for turning left or right. However, modifications are still required to make this a viable product, particularly one which doesn't rely on a foot-operated mechanism.


In the UK there are around 2,000 new cases of hemiplegia per year. Sales in the UK have been estimated at 200 p.a. and in Europe about 2,000 p.a.


Read more about different products and potential further design solutions to one-handed wheelchair pushing identified by Aideas.