The Role of Wheelchair Seating Standards in Determining Clinical Practices and Funding Policy

The development of international standards for wheelchair seating offers practical benefits in the process of matching technical characteristics of assistive technologies to individual user needs. However, information provided in technical test reports must be treated with caution when aggregating technical characteristics to classify products or when implementing funding policy. This article suggests that clustering technical characteristics of seat cushions in isolation of clinical and other user requirements is not a viable way to establish product funding codes that are responsive to clinical need.