how many people in the US are permanently bound to a wheelchair?

[ready29003]

I have been searching the web, but I cannot find a stat.

[alterego]

Something interesting I found during my search:

[

For example, do not say “wheelchair-bound”; instead say “wheelchair user” or even better although a little cumbersome “person who uses a wheelchair.” Among the more obvious examples are use of terms such as “visually impaired” and “hearing impaired” unless the persons described are totally blind or deaf. Another example is to describe those who are missing limbs as “prosthesis users” or “persons who use prostheses.” The print media outlets identified in Appendix C contain other examples.

](http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=2&q=http://www.cdc.gov/youthcampaign/research/PDF/4.4.05-KidsWDisabilitiesSummary.pdf&e=912)

The most recent statistics I could find are from 1994:

(numbers in thousands)

Wheelchair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,564

[whiterabbit]

Yeah to the terminology change – I’m not much for PCness, but a chair lets you get out and around. You’re not bound, you’re freed…unless you run into an inaccessible building or something, then you’re screwed.

I’ve heard this from actual people using chairs or scooters. Really, folks, they’re not so bad.

[Scarlett67]

Third on “use a wheelchair” – I also know wheelchair users who say it frees them rather than “confines” them.

Besides, “bound to a wheelchair” carries unfortunate images of bondage – I actually corrected this one one in a nursing home newsletter. It seems to be a conflation of “confined to a wheelchair” and “wheelchair-bound” – both of which, of course, we are trying to kill here.

Carry on.