Online survey of wheelchair service providers’ opinions about the usefulness of a new rear anti-tip device for manual wheelchairs: a cross-sectional study

Purpose: To obtain the opinions of a wider and larger group of wheelchair service providers than have been previously reported about the potential usefulness of a new rear anti-tip device (the Arc-RAD) that is out of the way at rest but self-deploys through an arc when needed. Materials and Methods: In this online survey, respondents were shown video recordings of the Arc-RAD in use. For each of 20 potential uses of the Arc-RAD, participants provided a score (1–5, from “extremely not useful” to “extremely useful”) and comments. Results: 156 respondents provided data regarding at least one of the potential uses. The median values were 5.0 for 9 potential uses (mostly ones not including the aided-wheelie position), 4.0 for 10 potential uses (including many of the aided-wheelie skills) and 3.0 for one potential use (can move straight sideways). For 15 (75%) of the 20 potential uses, at least 75% of the respondents’ answers were either “extremely useful” or “somewhat useful”. Of the remaining 5 potential uses, for only one (“can move straight sideways”) did respondents’ answers of either “extremely useful” or “somewhat useful” fall below 50%. From 668 qualitative comments, there were 1,044 codes in 6 categories – positive comments about C-RADs (0.7% of codes), negative comments about C-RADs (7.5%), positive comments about Arc-RADs (27.8%), negative comments about Arc-RADs (21.6%), questions or concerns about Arc-RADs (20.7%), and other comments (21.8%). Conclusions: Wheelchair service providers are positive about most of the potential uses of the Arc-RAD. Qualitative analysis will guide further research and development.