This may be a nitpick but FDR was not “confined” nor “bound” to a wheelchair; he used one. This type of language is outdated and generally frowned upon by the wheelchair-using community. (my bold)
Or more importantly, a powerful and indomitable will. And that, I believe, is something people clung to through the constant troubles of 1932-'45.
That looks like his cape that he wore to the Yalta conference with Stalin and Churchill near the end of the war.
It would have been exactly the language used by the general public of FDR’s day. If you’re talking about what they thought, then you must also reference the language in which they talked. If they had been forced to refer to him, it would have been as a cripple, but they preferred not to think of it.
This point is made by his grandson in this interesting article written by his grandson, which also addresses the OP’s question.
And how would the wheelchair-using community covey the idea of a person completely incapable of moving from one place to another without being in a wheel chair or being carried?
People here are talking as if FDR’s condition was unchanged during these 2 decades!
Obviously, it wasn’t – he suffered from an ongoing syndrome, which progresses (gets worse) over time. His physical limitations when campaigning in 1930 were different than in 1945.
Plus his advancing age, and the responsibilities of being President during the Hoover Depression and the World War took an obvious toll on him. Look at pictures of modern presidents like Clinton at the start & end of their term and you can see how the office ages them.
Hell, I’m only responsible for myself & some cats, but I don’t get around like I did 20 years ago.
Would that even apply here? I’d say those instances are few and far between and would be limited to only the most severely disabled wheelchair users who truly have no independence of movement.
Fair enough.
The Delano family “homestead” is in my hometown in Massachusetts. FDR was here many, many times from infancy into early adulthood and from time to time later in life. The last time FDR visited Fairhaven was in October, 1936. He had spoken in New Bedford then was driven into town. His car drove slowly in front of our high school. The students gathered outdoors to see him as he waved from the open convertible in the driveway before continuing on to the homestead. At the Delano house, he was helped inside. There, he and Mrs. Roosevelt had lunch with the President’s mother.
I’ve heard, in recent times, that some people were upset that the President did not stop at the high school, go inside and address the students. They obviously had no idea what an undertaking it would have been to get him up the front steps of the building and then up even more stairs to the auditorium. And there would have been no way to do it sheltered from public view.
I should add that much later the general public had no idea that Jackie Kennedy smoked. The press went along with the administration’s wishes not to photograph the First Lady with a cigarette.
A lot of people think Nixon’s Watergate scandal led to the less glossy press coverage of first families since the '70s.
Since the press did not care about JFK banging all kinds of women I guess overlooking smoking was pretty minor in comparison.
I don’t think that was photographed, though.
Well, if someone asks me, I tend to say that I am stuck with my chair today. [On good days I can manage to get around for between 5 and 10 minutes with crutches, anything longer than that and I do need to use my chair. On an average day I use my chair to preserve any ability I might have to actually walk on my own in case of emergency. Bad days I can pretty much manage to transfer chair to/from bed, toilet, shower chair. Really bad days I am stuck in bed with a bedpan.]
It is a tool, nothing to be ashamed of and I do make jokes about it. And I lust after the Bounder power chair that will do 11 MPH, and dream of one using a fuel cell 
Did he have feeling in his legs?
Using his leg braces to walk and stand for speeches apparently caused a huge amount of pain, so I guess the answer is yes. It’s possible that the pain was in his back or spine, but that’s not the impression I get from my reading.
Let’s also keep in mind that FDR smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish. These also took a huge toll on him.
Paralyzed means your nerves don’t work so you don’t feel pain.
No, not necessarily. The nerves that control motion are different nerves than the ones that transmit pain, mostly.
How much did the rest of the world – as in governments know? For example, Stalin or Hitler? I know he used one at Yalta, but FDR could have used the excuse that he wasn’t in such good health at the time.
In college, I had a classmate with polio – he was an exchange student from Rwanda. His leg was all twisted up. It was quite sobering to think about – something we all take for granted, that polio is pretty much a thing of the past. And one of my professors had it as an adult – apparently the first year the vaccine came out, they were only giving it to children at the time. She used a walker.
Also, our school nurse in high school had worked with Salk when he was distributing the vaccine.
So you could sort of propel/flip/toss one leg forward by lifting and twisting that hip?