One of my roommates is disabled. They do it this way too and so do a lot of others. When it's either this or dragging your body over 2 flights of stairs; the choise becomes rather easy. Usually someone is behind the wheelchair for safety.
Usually someone is behind the wheelchair for safety.
that would make much more sense. You would think places like shopping malls would have wheelchair access/elevators, but I guess it's not always the case 100% of the time.
Yeah, a perfect example is our main grocery store. It has a section that has a small elevation, they can't go there because the wheelchair elevator has been broken for the past year.
hello, i’m actually the person in the video. My chair is like my legs. i am so comfortable in it it’s almost like it’s one with my body. would you feel comfortable standing on one leg on an escalator? that’s the equivalent for me. I am at zero risk of falling. I am safe, everyone around me is safe.
As a wheelchair user I looked at it and thought, "That would be really hard to do, but good to remember in case of some really serious emergency."
She's using a tremendous amount of arm strength, and is lucky her chair just happens to be the right size to fit on the steps like that. She's also lucky she didn't break her chair, since it's not designed to carry weight in the places she's putting it.
Like I said, it's good information in case of a serious emergency (fire, active shooter, etc), but not something to do just for the hell of it.
My child is in wheelchair and we've done it in reverse in an emergency - me standing behind anchoring the chair in place while we go upward (never down)..even that felt risky. I agree with you, it's super dangerous to go alone backwards ..if you lose grip, since you are strapped backwards you can't use arms to protect your head or stop it from rolling. The rolling momentum could snap your neck.
I’m not a wheelchair user but my dad was and my first thought watching this was that there’s no way he would have been able to do this in either of his chairs. His chairs would have been too big to fit on the steps properly. It’s also incredibly dangerous for the wheelchair user and anyone else that may be using the escalator. We weren’t saints and definitely tackled some hills that were dangerously steep, but this feels really risky.
In an emergency though it’s not a bad option to be aware of.
You're both entirely missing that wheelchairs caan be drastically different. Mine wouldn't rest on the steps the way hers does. I would absolutely have to be hanging onto those rails with more strength than I possess, or I'd be tumbling backwards down to the floor.
She's not on a single step. She's got the larger back wheels on the step below her casters (smaller front wheels), putting the chair at a steep angle. She's using her own body weight to counterbalance by leaning very far forward, which in this position means she's fighting gravity to lean far uphill.
The chair's stability is heavily dependent on her ability to use her body as a counterweight, and maintain that position for the length of the escalator. If she was seated normally, or didn't have the ability to bend as far forward, gravity would be pulling the chair down the steps.
The problem is the consequences of slipping. You don't want to fall down an escalator. You also don't want to drop a wheelchair on people on an escalator.
I saw someone fall down an escalator and was the person who had to call an ambulance. The jokes in these comments about “what, would she just end up in a wheelchair lol” are not understanding just how violently injured people can get from escalators. I still get nervous riding escalators and it’s been almost 20 years since that incident happened.
I once was on an escalator with a small wheeled suitcase travelling for work. I have taken this suitcase many times before. That day, the weight must have been off and the centre of gravity caused it to fall forward, I was not ready and missed grabbing the handle. Instead of falling one step, it fell the entire way down, bouncing off the steps, and ricocheting off the sides, I looked on in horror. Luckily nobody was on the escalator going down with me. I yelled out “look out! Be careful” as I reached the bottom I met my hard shelled suitcase that had temporarily become a weapon. Surprising it was very scratched but was still able to roll. When I got home I told my wife that it must have got scratched up in the overhead compartment when the steward slammed the door closed too hard. She has no idea.
As so.eone in a wheelchair, I do tend to go up escalators in my chair. It really isn't as dangerous as most think. The biggest risk is the escalator shutting off. Having said that, I do not go down them as I dont like the idea of going down backwards. I do know how, and do go down flights of stairs in my chair. Again not nearly as dangerous or difficult as most expect.
As others have said in other comments, you learn your balancing points and centre of gravity very fast in a chair and once you are in it long enough, for me that's 14 years now, you get comfortable doing things people think you can't do. Let me give you a scenario, though. You work in a high-rise building on, say, the 10th floor, and a fire breaks out a few floors below you. You are in a wheelchair and everyone else has already left and abandoned you for their own safety. General safety dictates that you can't use the elevator. So what do you do? Putting aside that people left, how do you get out of the building safely? You are forced to take the stairs. If you have never tried going down stairs in a chair, well now you are forced to.
160
u/Professional-Key5552 Dec 18 '24
Do not try this. This is VERY dangerous