**Abstract**

Conventional wheelchairs do not cope well in less-resourced rural areas as they are not stable and can topple easily. This chapter seeks to develop a wheelchair design that offers optimum stability and comfort for people in rural areas where there is rough and uneven terrain environment. The design development process entailed the generation of three possible wheelchair design concepts. Wide rear wheel design was further developed to come up with a detailed design with a maximum tipping angle of 43.17 degrees. This could be considered to be a great improvement compared to the conventional wheelchair configuration. The design was made to function using a ratchet lever bar to push the rear wheels forward to initiate motion. It was established that fabrication of the prototype could be done easily at a lower cost cap of USD200 using locally available materials. The proposed wheelchair design would improve the mobility and consequent living conditions of those disabled individuals living in rough terrain rural set up environments.

**Keywords:** wheelchair, stability, rough terrain, off-road, uneven ground, design, rural

#### **1. Introduction**

Wheelchairs may take a variety of forms to meet particular needs of users. Such configurations may entail specialized seating set up, individualized controlling mechanisms, and in some cases specific to certain activities, as is the case with sports and beach wheelchairs [1]. The commonly known distinction among wheelchairs is between powered wheelchairs, where mobility is powered by batteries and electric motors, and manual propulsion, where the propulsive force is provided by the user pushing the wheelchair by hand, or by having someone pushing from the rear [2].

The user of a standard wheelchair, when utilizing the wheelchair on rough terrain, is confronted with a plenty of difficulties. The most exceedingly awful being, the unsteadiness brought about by a high position of gravity point from the wheel contact with the ground [3]. In this manner wheelchair may topple over in reverse during negotiating steep slanted territory. When horizontally navigating a steep grade, the wheelchair is probably going to tip sideways [4]. During descending a slope, the operator may risk sliding out of the seat or having the seat unstable and having a forward pitch [5].

Most wheelchair designs are not conducive for use in rough terrain (**Figure 1**) found in the rural country side, nonetheless this should not discourage those who are

**Figure 1.** *Rough terrain [5].*

unable to walk to work for themselves and earn a living [6]. It is in this regard that some effort has been made to improve the mobility of wheelchair users so that they are able to move from one point to the other despite how rough the terrain maybe.
