Tamil Nadu - Chennai

The right way to handle a wheelchair

CHENNAI: You may think you require no training in handling a wheelchair. But ask the person sitting in one and the person who operates it, and you get a different picture.

At a time when other countries have introduced battery-operated wheelchairs, access continues to be denied to persons with disabilities in most buildings in India. National Service Scheme volunteers, home nursing students and house keeping staff at Spencer’s Plaza participated in a wheelchair handling training programme held on Friday at the shopping mall.

Sowmya Simhan, founder of Sukriti Social Foundation that organised the programme, said: “It is like learning to ride a cycle. For the first two hours, somebody has to be there to teach the techniques of balancing. One does not need four people to handle a wheel chair user. It can be done by a single person.”

Though more buildings are providing for ramps and wheel chairs, there are few trained personnel to manoeuvre them, she points out. As a result, the facilities remain unused. R. Sridhar, who has been using a wheel chair since childhood, said the aim of the programme was to train volunteers.

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