Testimonials

The following are samples of comments about the Wheelchair Skills Program (WSP): Olga Kilkens and colleagues published a paper in Clinical Rehabilitation in 2003 (volume 17, pages 418-430) in which they reported on a systematic review of 24 other papers that dealt with the assessment of wheelchair skills tests. They concluded that “The Wheelchair Skills Test is the only test that has been adequately tested on both validity and reliability.” Nenad Kostanjsek, of the World Health Organization, on seeing the Wheelchair Skills Program (WSP) in 2004, described the WSP as “low tech, high impact”. Rick Hansen, in an interview on CBC Radio in Halifax on May 2nd, 2005, stated: “I thought it was fantastic to see what (the Wheelchair Research Team is) doing in terms of taking the issues about accessibility and mobility and wheelchairs and compressing them into an environment where you can understand the risks, the skills and the opportunities. What I love about what they’re doing is that they are actually disseminating that information. It is being widely utilized and picked up all around the world. … this kind of knowledge will help so many people and help them to be safe and skilled and effective; to be able to get around.” Marty Ball. Vice President of Sales, TiLite, November 16, 2009, after attending a full-day wheelchair skills boot-camp: “I can hardly believe the class success in such a short time span, but you did point out that the sequence of skills has a lot to do with that….You guys are way ahead of your time with the skills program. To me, the time has come for this to become a part of every user’s and every therapist’s education. There are far too many of both that do not get the best of their mobility because they do not know how…. Therapists need to have skills as much as users need them, in order to teach them.”