Product Review – L.I.T.E Bag
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Lifting a wheelchair into and out of a vehicle can be a tricky manoeuvre especially if the wheelchair has a tendency to spring open or the wheels are covered in mud. But a new invention by two physiotherapists aims to make this job a lot easier.
Jean and Sue accept that the established advice is to install a boot hoist system for loading and unloading wheelchairs, but acknowledge that this may not always be appropriate or even necessary. The first line approach for most people to getting their wheelchair into and out of a car is a manual lift. They therefore set about the task of developing a non mechanical product that would reduce the risk when manually handling a wheelchair.
Having assessed the physical risk of manually loading a wheelchair into a car they have developed the L.I.T.E Bag which is a wheelchair handling bag.
The L.I.T.E Bag comes in one flat piece of heavy duty, cleanable fabric. The wheelchair is wheeled into the bag, which is then zipped together to contain the wheelchair. The design enables the wheelchair to be held close to the body without fear of getting your clothes dirty, or of trapping fingers in the spokes. Jean and Sue said “The ergonomically placed handles ensure stability of the wheelchair and good posture of the handler. The L.I.T.E bag not only contains the wheelchair, but makes it feel lighter to handle, and it aids with safe transportation of the wheelchair. The bag has potential for other uses including travel and storage.”
One happy owner of a L.I.T.E bag said “Even though we now have a lighter wheelchair the LITE bag still makes it much easier to lift and load into a car. There are no worries about scratching the sill of the boot. The bag allows you to rest the wheelchair on the sill and slide the wheelchair in and out of the car easily, preventing reaching into the boot and lifting of the chair over the sill. From a storage perspective, the bag makes the chair easily identifiable, (especially when stored with lots of other things in the garage!!), and is much nicer to look at than the chair itself”.
The recommended price of the bag is £65. Further information and a list of suppliers visit www.biston.co.uk or call JeanBish on 0771 027 5795 or SueBarton on 0786 660 5203.
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This article first appeared in the issue of Disabled Motoring. This monthly magazine goes out free to members of Disabled Motoring UK, the charity for disabled drivers, passengers and Blue Badge holders.
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Tags: L.I.T.E Bag, Product Review, wheelchair accessible, wheelchair accessories