There are no good options for wheelchair users. Here’s why it might not be
Android & Chill
One of the longest-running tech columns on the web, Android & Chill is your Saturday chat for Android, Google, and all things tech.
I’ve been in a wheelchair for about 20 years, and now I’m a full-time person. I am also interested in staying healthy so that I can live long enough to be a responsibility to my children. Like most people, I use a smartwatch as a wearable fitness tracker.
Unfortunately, I don’t see this changing anytime soon, if at all.
We are built differently
The difficulty in developing accurate and useful fitness trackers for wheelchair users stems from a combination of technological limitations, significant movement differences, and a historical lack of dedicated research and market focus.
The underlying technology in many commercial wearables is designed for “capable” people, creating critical precision when used in wheelchair applications. I’m talking about smart watches here, because something as small as a smart ring or smart earrings just doesn’t have enough space to put something else inside.
Wearable trackers primarily use an accelerometer to count steps by detecting certain movements involved in walking or running. That data is used to calculate other features, such as calorie counting or body battery measurement.
When you use a wheelchair, your arm and body movements are different than when you walk or run. This often leads to overestimating or underestimating “steps” and calories burned. A simple accelerometer is not designed to measure these.
Different technologies are required
Software algorithms determine energy expenditure using a combination of data such as heart rate, height, weight, and accelerometer readings. To make matters worse, all of this is designed with lower body movement in mind.
To push a wheelchair, you lean on your upper body. In general, this is less difficult than a “normal” leg-based movement. This means that even wearable looks down your push number, the result can still be overestimating because your body is not working hard to move forward.
It’s hard to rationally evaluate any kind of fitness goal when things are over- and underrated all at the same time. Garmin, to its credit, explains how it tries to compensate for this and uses a different software algorithm when using Wheelchair Mode on one of the company’s watches.
Apple, Samsung, and Google are all working to make it better, too, even if they aren’t quite there yet. Even with my Garmin, the readings and calculations are not very accurate due to differences in movement and the limitations of “normal” sensors in their measurement.
Modern medicine won’t change the way people in wheelchairs use their bodies to move, but the technology may be developed. The University of Pittsburgh’s Human Engineering Research Lab is working on how to build a system to track the fitness of people with ambulance problems, but it could lead to an entirely new product category of devices. Their research includes wearable technology on the wrist and face (monitoring breathing and oxygen intake) and the technology of the wheelchair itself. Think of a smart chair, as we’ve seen Google test smart shoe insoles.
The market does not exist
Perhaps the biggest problem is the market itself and historical research on this problem. I’m not complaining that people without mobility problems don’t think about wheelchair users, and I don’t want to sound too needy. The truth is that not a lot of research goes into tracking wheelchair fit. This can and probably will change, but it is unlikely to be achieved.
The market simply isn’t there to justify the huge costs. There are more people with ambulance problems than you might think, but the number is still dwarfed by those who don’t. And, to be honest, most people in wheelchairs don’t care about their fitness. For every wheel-basketball player (those guys are amazing and my heroes), there will be as many (or more) users who are not interested in seeing how effective they can be. To be honest, it’s hard to be critical when you live in a world that wasn’t designed to accommodate you.
In any case, the number of people who would buy an expensive fitness tracking system will not be high. Any company willing to do the research will not make a profit from it, and the companies that make these devices will likely lose money. For now, it’s in the hands of forward-thinking people like the University of Pittsburgh.
For now, I’ll stick to my Garmin
I’m not bitter. I’ve learned how to use the information my Garmin watch gives me, and while I can’t really trust it, it doesn’t change much. It helps to help in certain ways; I lift weights to keep my upper body strong, and it can help me there.
If things ever change, I can try to buy a better way, even though I am a minority. I am glad that great technology has not forgotten me, even if it takes a long time to produce average results.
