musings from my lab bench

Let’s start with my area of expertise: wheelchairs

Jack is an ambulatory wheelchair user — which means he can walk, he just spends a good chunk of his life in a wheelchair. He very likely spends most of his days in a custom active manual wheelchair. This is a wheelchair he pushes by himself without any kind of power-assist. Although, a power assist can be attached to these chairs and I guarantee Jack probably owns one. (More info below). Pictured below is an custom (rigid) active manual wheelchair that Jack would own and would be fitted to his body:

Please note that the backrest is short as Jack does not have a spinal injury as far as we are aware. There are no push handles, as many chair users (myself included) who can push ourselves and rarely need assistance, do not want to be pushed without consent. Which happens, a lot.

Jack is a BKA, a below-the-knee amputee, he would be fine using a contoured seat cushion and one foot plate. This way he can wear his leg in his chair or not.

This rigid chair is designed to be pulled apart and light. Here is a helpful guide for the names of everything. The frame itself (on a rigid chair, like the ones pictured) is one solid piece, however, the big driving wheels, seat cushion, and side guards all come off. The backrest (if solid and not fabric) will fold down.

There is also another type of custom active manual wheelchair called a folding chair. You can typically tell the different because folding chairs have split foot rests. They are also often heavier, but they can fold, some recline and some have foot rests can be adjusted to facilitate this. I don’t believe Jack would spend most of his days in a folding chair, as they are a bit bigger and less easily maneuvered. However, I do believe he owns one and likely uses one when undergoing revision surgeries to his residual limb.

Probably with a swing away support like this:

Now, pushing a wheelchair is a very tiring experience, even for someone well-accustomed to life in a chair. So, power options.

Jack likely owns a SmartDrive, Firefly or another kind of power assist that hooks onto his active manual chairs. (If you want me to explain more, I shall). Side note, there are also attachments with no power assist that Jack would probably have too, like a FreeWheel (essentially one big wheel in front that makes hiking/nature way easier).

A SmartDrive would simply hook onto the back of his chair and be controlled by a dial or a switch or an app or by push-rim.

A Firefly would hook to the front to turn his chair into more of a scooter for city travel, by lifting his caster wheels off the ground.

Now, if Jack wanted a power chair, it would likely be an electric folding chair and not a full-sized power chair.

Something like this, which would not need a ramp to get into his truck.

But! At home or for short distances with no leg — let’s move to another mobility aid: crutches!

Jack very likely uses forearm or gutter crutches to get around. Depending on how he wants his weight to sit (through his hands and wrists, or spread out through his forearms).

Forearm:

Gutter:

I also guarantee Jack has a couple random canes lying around, a couple clunker hospital wheelchairs and the parts to fix just about anything.

Jack very likely also carries with him at all times: two Allen wrench sets, microfiber towels, Clorox wipes, screws, washers and bike lube. Just in case he needs to maintenance his chair on the go. He also probably carries them in a fanny pack strapped around his seat, which makes a handy pocket under his wheelchair to carry random shit.

Jack also is a cripplepunk, I just know it in my heart and soul — but that is a different ramble. Please be expecting another post about Jack’s many legs and chair decor soon.

Now, one last thing, sports!

Our favorite cripple probably owns a sports chair, which is much lighter than even his usual rigid chair and doesn’t have brakes, but does have a bar in front (as well as an extreme camber/tilt to the wheels). Although, some don’t, depending on what sport you want to play.

This is a sled hockey bucket!

And this is for WCMX, basically skateboarding but make it wheelchair.

Anyway, this has been crippletalk with MB.

So like OP says, it can be controlled with an app, which is the way I use it. This is what the app looks like.

I had two buttons installed on my wheelchair. One on the right side of the frame and on one of the handles for my mom to push. I was given two options of button styles and one was the Buddy Button that comes in different colorways.

give that knife/sword fight survivor nerve damage. give the character who was shot in the gut a stoma. give that fire survivor lung damage and an oxygen cannula. give that leg injury survivor a cane. give that starvation survivor gastroparesis. give that spinal injury survivor a manual chair or powerchair.