Sorry, long, confused post!

I personally would go for an electric wheelchair but then I don’t like scooters as I think they are cumbersome and make you stand out more.

Electric chairs these days are fantastic and some come in some brilliant colours, for getting round school I think it would be more manoeuvrable also how will your son be getting to school transport wise as this might determine your choice of scooter or chair.

There are portable ramps on the market which would allow you to get the chair in the car without lifting, I will have a scout around and post some links for you.

Hi there,

I’m an adult but I thought you might find my experience helpful. I use a powered wheelchair at work but only occasionally – I use it about once a fortnight if I am particulary tired or have to do some extra walking. A manual chair is not useful because my arms are actually weaker than my legs. It is something I have only recently acquired but it has been great because it has made it possible for me to get around work without completely knackering myself not to put too fine a point on it!! Yes, it might seem kind of weird to people who don’t understand to see someone go somewhere in a powered wheelchair and then get up and walk but I have found that if I behave like it is the most normal thing in the world people react to me and not my chair. I did wonder whether patients would be distracted by the chair (I’m a health professional myself) and whether I would either not get taken seriously or constantly spend time fielding questions about me rather than doing my job but it has not turned out like that at all. It is generally even easier with other staff because when you see people regularly you get used to each other and the staff I’ve worked with for a while all have a fair idea what I can and can’t do. Similarly I would hope that your son will get to a point where his classmates ‘get it’ and understand that sometimes he uses a chair and sometimes he doesn’t – two points I thought of –

1) I’d say a scooter isn’t a good idea – I had the same thoughts as you about a scooter being less ‘disabled looking’ when I first thought about getting a mobility aid for myself but when I tried a scooter in the shop I nearly crashed it because I wasn’t expecting to need so much arm strength to steer it!! Your son may not find them easy to use. Also Vicki is right about the size of them – you can get much neater powered chairs.

2) Re transporting the chair – have you thought of leaving it in school? My chair stays in work and doesn’t come home. You would need to discuss it with the school but perhaps there is some locked room or keycode protected room you could have it kept in. Perhaps there is an administrator’s office it could live in?? It would need to be a room with a power source for charging the battery.

Hope this helps a bit with your thoughts….

My son is 4 and we are just about to get a power chair for him. It was a big decision and adjustment for us but he loved the trial one and can’t wait to have his own. We have the car issue too – the chair weighs about 10 stone so i can’t lift it and we have a lease purchase car. I’m going to ask the mobility people how exactly they fit the hoist to the inside of the boot and then will ask the car people if they will allow me to do it. If not we are going to have to look for other solutions. I think we will leave it at school during the week though and bring it home on weekends.
I know what you mean about the power chair being ‘more disabled’ looking but at the end of the day if it helps then it just has to be done. It is hard though – sometimes whatever options are given seem to just be so medical and there must be other options first. My son needs a school chair with arms and a footrest so they want to put him in this big contraption that looks hideous. Why can’t i just get a chair with arms (weirdly notoriously hard to find) and get a step for his feet??
Good luck – i will let you know how i get on with the car thing.

I suppose it depends where you live, but couldn’t the laddie wheel to school in his electric wheelchair? They have the juice these days don’t they? His siblings could accompany him on foot. I guess things are different now, but i used to walk 2 miles to and from Primary, as well as High School.