The Cup Holder

The Gimp and his Gizmos – A

Carrying anything in a wheelchair is a huge amount of trouble. There are no good surfaces for resting packages. Laps tend not to be flat and any sudden stop can cause a package to slip disastrously to the floor. Furthermore the legs are not particularly designed to carry anything of unusual shape or weight.

The problem for carrying fluids is even worse because they can spell and in most positions for a fluid might be carried that spell is directly into your lap. Remember, that while you can sit in a wheelchair and hold the glass that action consumes one of your hands and it requires both hands to move the chair. While I was in the hospital they suggested that the best way to carry a cup was to wedge it between your legs. This worked relatively well for cold drinks and cases where the cop is not to full. It is obviously too dangerous to carry hot fluids between your legs.

When I got home I bought a thermos container with a lid that sealed well and had a hole that can be opened with a button. This allowed me carry hot coffee and tea in my lap without great fear of burning myself. It was not, however, the solution I really wanted.

Eventually I decided to look for a cup holder that could attach to the frame of my wheelchair. I wanted something that could fold up into a small package that would not be in the way when nothing was being carried. Eventually I found a holder at Mobility Aids that met most of my criteria. It is shown below on my new wheelchair holding a cup of coffee. The upper holders are adjustable and can accommodate many different sizes of cup. I do find that it does not do well with cups that are not tall enough and can slipped below the upper holder.

 

 

The holdercomes with a great bracket for attaching it to the frame of a Quikie chair. When I got my TiLite the bars on the frame were too large attachment that came with the cup holder. My solution was to go to the electrical departmentof the local hardware store and buy a series of pieces that were designed for holding electrical conduits. Two of these fit into the holes in the existing device while a therapy wired able to be drilled.Initially I tried using only two attachment points both on the same side but the arrangement proved to asymmetrical and the cup tended to lean as it was being carried. The current arrangement shown below works well enough although even then the cup has a tendency to lean.

Of course,One of the things that I discovered is that while I greatly prefer Glasses made of glass and potteryThese have a habit of falling on the floor and breaking .We are in the process of getting a good supply of plastic cups and glasses  capable of surviving the abuses dished out to them.