Powerchair Football/Power Soccer

A new sport has been developed for powerchair users called powerchair football or power soccer. It is the only competitive team sport for powerchair users. The Federation Internationale de Powerchair Football Associations (FIPFA) ^[1] governs the sport and is located in Paris, France with country affiliates around the world.

Transfer, stretcher, or mechanical chairs

Stretcher (or transfer) chairs are mobile chairs that can be adjusted to lay flat like a stretcher to help in the lateral (or supine) transfer of a patient from a bed to the chair. Once transferred, the mobile chair can be adjusted to allow the patient to assume a sitting position. Transfer chairs often use sliding sheets or inflatable mats with air bearings to facilitate the movement of the patient from the bed to the chair. The patient in bed is rolled onto the transfer sheet or mat, and the sheet slides between the bed and the chair, carrying the patient with it. Transfer chairs sometimes have separate manual cranks or electric winches which attach to the sliding sheet and pull (or drag) the patient off the bed and onto the chair. Alternately nurses can slide the transfer sheet and patient manually. Transfer chairs are often heavy and expensive in comparison to more common wheelchairs. This is because of the complex engineering required to change the chair's configuration (stretcher to chair). The lateral patient transfer process also requires a stable (heavy) platform to prevent injury (i.e., avoid falls) during this kind of transfer.