Wheel chair a mobility device for the disable or physically ill persons for whom walking is difficult or not possible. Wheel chairs come in different ranges and styles and have various functionalities according to the need of their users. Manual wheel chairs are the oldest form of wheel chairs which came in to use first time in 6th century in China in the form of stone slate. First lightweight wheelchair was made in 1933 in Germany and that design is still in use.

Manual wheel chairs are most commonly used in hospitals, clinics and public places where one normal person is needed to push the chair for the user of the chair. As the more specialized utilities are coming into existence rapidly in all spheres of life thus wheel chairs also have evolved with different sort of solutions for humans. Even if we stay focused to buy a manual wheel chair, we will found variety of manual wheel chairs available in the market, making it difficult to decide and select the appropriate one.

There are many factors and points to be considered before buying a manual wheel chair, I have tried to summarize below the aspects which should be in your consideration before buying it. Hope these will help you a lot in making the right decision.

1.    Manual Wheel Chairs Categories: There are commonly three types of manual wheel chairs available;
- a.    Manual or Self Propelled Wheel Chairs: These chairs normally have large rare wheel just like a bicycle wheel almost of 20-26 inches diameter. The user can move the chair by pushing hand rims around the rare wheels. By pushing one side hand rim chair can be moved to that side and pushing both together can move chair forward. The chair can also be pushed by some attendant from the back handles.
- b.    Attendant Propelled Wheel Chairs: These chairs are used to be pushed by some attendant as their rare wheels are normally not larger as compared to front wheels. The rare wheels also don’t have hand rims to be pushed. These chairs are normally seen at hospitals, airports etc, as to be used as a temporary option. These wheel chairs are also known as Push Wheel Chair.
- c.    Wheelbase Chairs: Such chairs have special molded seating system so that the users having complex seating posture can be served. Seat is attached with a covered wheel base.

2.    Consult Your Doctor: You must consult your doctor before going to buy a wheel chair as if you need it for some longer time duration or permanent basis then your doctor can advice you better that what type of seating posture is required.

3.    Material Used: Some wheel chairs are made with heavy metals to serve for longer periods and some are made with some lighter materials thus have lesser life span. There are also different types of materials used for seat and back to provide comfort to user. It depends upon your requirement that what type of material suits your needs most.

4.   Weight: It is also a major phenomenon to be considered. As much heavier a wheel chair will be that much energy will be required to push it. But as much lighter it will be that much lesser lifetime it will have.

5.   Take a Test Drive: Whichever manual wheel chair you select, it is necessary to take a self drive first. It will give you idea that how it is going to behave with you in future and how much comfortable you are with it.